April 1, 2007 Israel Warns of Hamas Military Buildup in Gaza By STEVEN ERLANGER JERUSALEM, March 31 — Hamas, the dominant faction in the Palestinian government, is building its military capacity in the Gaza Strip, constructing tunnels and underground bunkers and smuggling in ground-to-air missiles and military-grade explosives, senior Israeli officials say. The officials, including a top military commander who spoke in an interview on Friday, said that Hamas had learned tactics from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, which brought in and stored thousands of rockets in bunkers near the northern Israeli border before its war with Israel last summer. In Gaza, the Israeli commander said, Hamas has now recruited 10,000 fighters to its so-called Executive Force, a parallel police force intended to counter the control its rival Fatah exercises over the Palestinian Authority’s security forces. The Executive Force is now divided into five “so-called brigades, with battalion leaders” and is receiving more military training and sharing a common headquarters, he said, with the Qassam brigades, Hamas’s military wing. The commander, who gave the briefing at the request of The New York Times and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Hamas’s improved rockets had a range of about 10 miles, which would allow them to hit the Israeli town of Ashkelon. But he emphasized that despite Israel’s growing concerns about Hamas, “we’re not going to start a big operation in Gaza.” Still, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is under increasing pressure from the political right and from parts of the security establishment to deal with the Hamas buildup sooner rather than later. And no one rules out a major Israeli response if a rocket from Gaza produces significant Israeli casualties. Yuval Diskin, the director of the Shin Bet internal security service, said recently in a briefing for journalists that “if the Hamas buildup continues, and the rockets and tunnels continue, at the end of the day we will have to do something about it.” He said that Egypt needed to do more to stop the smuggling of weapons, explosives and rockets into Gaza, and he said that Hamas had been able to send out “tens” of men for extensive military training in Iran, “with the promise of hundreds,” which worried him more, he said, than any smuggled weapon. Hamas has denied sending men to Iran for training, dismissing Israel’s assertions as propaganda aimed at hurting the Palestinian government. Israel may have an interest in asserting that the Palestinians are building an aggressive force. But it is known to have excellent electronic and human intelligence about Palestinian militias. Its claims about Hezbollah’s buildup in recent years have proved to be accurate. Recently, when Fatah accused Hamas of digging tunnels and bunkers from which to launch attacks on its men, Hamas spokesmen said the construction was to confront another Israeli raid and was not aimed at Fatah. Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have risen lately, and the intermittent cease-fire in Gaza is fraying. On Wednesday, Israeli forces carried out their first offensive operation in Gaza in months, attacking a cell of Islamic Jihad militants preparing to launch Qassam rockets into Israel. In the past two weeks alone, the army says, more than 20 Qassams have been launched toward Israel, with at least five landing inside its territory, and an Israeli civilian, an electrical worker standing on a ladder in Israel near the border crossing, was shot by a Hamas member. On Friday, on the grounds of a former Israeli settlement near Khan Yunis, a Hamas fighter was killed and nine more were wounded when explosives blew up during their military training. The senior military commander said that after last summer’s war in Lebanon, Israeli troops were training differently. Given the Hamas buildup in men and new weaponry, Israel now viewed a battle in Gaza as “high-intensity warfare,” no longer the kind of policelike operation still being carried out in the West Bank, where Israeli forces roam at will. While Israel controls access to Gaza and its sea and airspace, it has generally held to the cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza since November, despite all the Qassam missile launchings by other Palestinian militant groups like Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which Hamas has done nothing to prevent. Hamas itself has not fired rockets since at least November, the commander said, because it wishes to preserve the cease-fire with Israel and not precipitate a major attack in Gaza. But what worries the director of Shin Bet, the Israeli counterterrorism service, and the new commander of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, is the way that Hamas is using the calm to consolidate its power in Gaza and enhance its military capacities — and not just to fight its Palestinian rival, Fatah. The strengthening of Hamas and its consolidation of power in Gaza, reflected politically in Fatah’s decision to join Hamas as a junior partner in a coalition government, is a prime reason that Mr. Olmert is resisting a push from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to talk seriously to the Palestinians about the substance of a peace treaty with Israel. The continuing empowerment of Hamas is also behind Mr. Olmert’s reluctance to embrace the Arab League peace initiative reconfirmed Thursday at its summit meeting. Israelis may want peace in principle, but they are very reluctant to give up more territory in the occupied West Bank, as they have done in Gaza, to a Palestinian Authority dominated by a group unwilling to recognize Israel’s right to exist or to forswear the use of violence. The concerns of Shin Bet and the army, their officials say, include the following: as much as 30 tons of weapons-grade explosives smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, either through tunnels or through the desert; new rocket-building expertise from non-Gazans smuggled into Gaza or from Gazans who received training from Hezbollah or in Syria; a small but unknown quantity of better antitank missiles, of the general kind used so effectively last summer by Hezbollah against Israeli armor and Israeli troops sheltering in houses; a small number of ground-to-air missiles; and the construction of Hezbollah-style concrete bunkers and tunnels in crowded Gaza that will make any Israeli infantry operation harder to carry out. As important, the commander said, the use of industrial explosive means that weapons can be produced and stored, while homemade explosives deteriorate within weeks. “In a way,” the commander said, “it’s a cease-fire that’s not a cease-fire.” He noted more agitation inside Hamas, especially in the military wing, to end the cease-fire out of unhappiness with the new unity government agreed upon by Hamas and Fatah. He noted that Fatah was so far doing little to resurrect itself, and he suggested that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, “has given up” and taken a junior role to Hamas. “And since we can’t see a political solution meanwhile, we’re a little worried about this situation,” he said. General Ashkenazi, the chief of staff, warned the Israeli Parliament this week that the army might be required to provide an answer to the growing strength of Hamas in Gaza and the accumulation of large quantities of arms and ammunition. “The process of Hamas growing stronger demands some sort of solution on our part,” he said. “It involves large quantities of arms and an increase in the level of their operational planning. To counter this, the Southern Command is planning and training in case they will need to be activated.” Hamas spokesmen in Gaza said that Palestinians had the right to defend themselves and that the Israeli comments appeared intended to justify new military attacks. Fawzi Barhoum of Hamas said that “resistance is a legitimate right so long as there is occupation, and resistance in all its forms.” Hamas, he said, “has the right to defend our people, the right to be ready to respond to Israeli attacks.” Mr. Barhoum would not comment on the specifics of the Israeli charges, but Khaled Abu Hilal, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that the Executive Force remained at just under 6,000 men representing various factions. He said it was an arm of the government, not of Hamas, and did not share headquarters with the Qassam brigades. Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Executive Force, said the 6,000 men were divided into six brigades and added, “We work as a government institution to protect internal security, not as a faction.” Men have been sent to Syria and Sudan for training, he said, not to Iran. Hamas also denied a charge by Mr. Olmert in Time magazine that Prime Minister Ismail Haniya had delivered $1 million in cash to the military wing, saying that all cash was handed to the Palestinian treasury. The senior commander said Israel wanted to give Washington space to try diplomacy and had promised to try to ease restrictions on the Palestinian movement of goods and people, not tighten them. Israel also knows that any large operation in Gaza would take months, not days, he said, and would result in numerous civilian casualties among Palestinians in the tightly packed towns and refugee camps where fighters live among the residents. Presumably, Hamas would be badly damaged by such an operation, which Hamas is therefore likely to be careful not to cause. But Israel also knows that however hurt, Hamas would not be wiped out, and that Fatah is not ready to replace it. Israel is also concerned that if Hamas decides to turn back from politics and resume full-scale military activities against Israel, there would probably be a new surge in more sophisticated rocket attacks and more professionally planned suicide bombings. Efraim Halevy, a former director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, who is now at Hebrew University, said that while there were always military solutions, “it’s a question of price, and the government will take longer to discuss a Gaza operation than it did before going into Lebanon.” A major operation in Gaza “would imply that Gaza disengagement was a mistake,” Mr. Halevy said, something that a weakened Mr. Olmert, who strongly backed the Gaza pullout, would be reluctant to acknowledge. “Israel needs a solution to Gaza, but not necessarily a military solution,” Mr. Halevy said. “I think the government would exhaust all other options first.” Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza. NEW YORK December 27, 2010, 06:20 pm ET A windy winter storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on New York City also whipped up criticism about how the city responded to it. Some New Yorkers in the outer boroughs complained that the city took too long to plow their neighborhoods, ignoring them in favor of wealthier Manhattan areas. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the fast pace of snowfall — 2 to 3 inches per hour at some periods overnight — and the amount of people who abandoned cars in the road delayed the progress of the plows. "Those cars have to be towed before plowing can resume, which really slows things up," he said. Officials said crews were concentrating on main roadways and warned that side streets might not be cleared until Tuesday. For the record, the city deployed 1,600 plows for a snowstorm that delivered 20.9 inches in February, as measured in Central Park. For this latest winter blast — which dropped 20 inches — 1,700 plows, plus 365 salt spreaders that were converted into plows, were working on the streets. Fire officials said the unplowed roads were slowing their responses to emergencies, and snowbound residents in Brooklyn and Queens said many streets, including main thoroughfares, were impossible to traverse, making it difficult to get to work. At New Enrico's Car Service in Queens, all 90 taxis in the fleet were grounded — either trapped under snow drifts or stuck on impassable streets. "I'm furious at Mayor Bloomberg, he's a rich man, so he doesn't care about the little people," said livery driver Julio Carpio, speaking in Spanish. "I have to work, why aren't people out there plowing? Why does the mayor always go on TV the night before to say, 'We're all set with a fleet of salt trucks,'? and then you never see a single truck. They always abandon Queens." Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent and billionaire who barely tolerates complaining, downplayed concerns and encouraged New Yorkers to enjoy the snow or take advantage of the unexpected free time by attending a Broadway show. "There's no reason for everybody to panic," he said. "Our city is doing exactly what you'd want it to do." Snowstorms can bring a chill to a mayor's popularity among his constituents. A 1969 storm dumped a little more than a foot of snow in New York City but dogged then-Mayor John Lindsay for many months afterward, contributing to his narrow re-election win that year. Some streets in Queens weren't cleared for days, and Lindsay was accused of harboring a Manhattan-centric attitude. Late in the day on Monday, as criticism began to build, Bloomberg headed to a southwest Queens neighborhood to greet residents at a local bakery. He also made a stop in Brooklyn and was heading to Staten Island. State Sen. Carl Kruger, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, called the city's response to the storm a "colossal failure." "Forecasters predicted this blizzard days in advance," Kruger said. "There was clearly insufficient planning, and New Yorkers are paying too steep a price. Someone has to be accountable." ———— A driver of a snow plow stopped to help a stuck ambulance in Brooklyn during Sunday’s snow storm. New York City’s response to the monster snow storm has been hampered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to reduce the Sanitation Department’s workforce as part of citywide budget cuts, the head of the sanitation workers’ union said Monday. Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, said the department is currently down roughly 400 workers. “We are undermanned — we need another 400,” Nespoli said in a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I mean this is a perfect example of why you need the man power in New York City. We’re shorthanded here.” Nespoli praised the workforce, saying the workers are doing a yeoman’s job given the weather conditions and the depleted troops. But he said the staff reductions have nevertheless taken a toll. “Whenever you cut your workforce down, it’s going to hurt services,” Nespoli said. “Guys are retiring, and they have to replace these people. You can’t allow a city like New York not to have the services that the public’s used to,” he said. “This is a major blizzard.” Asked to respond to Nespoli’s comments, Vito Turso, a spokesman for the Sanitation Department, replied, “Our dedicated sanitation workers have been doing a tremendous snow fighting job during this severe weather, working long shifts in terrible blizzard-like conditions.” The mayor, along with a slew of city officials, including Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, are scheduled to update New Yorkers on the city’s response to the storm during a briefing at City Hall Monday afternoon. To combat multibillion dollar deficits, Bloomberg has been aggressively cutting city agency budgets to keep the books balanced. Bloomberg unveiled last month his latest round of budget cuts, which called for a further reduction–via attrition–of 265 sanitation workers by June 2012. Despite the workforce reduction, Nespoli said he remains impressed with the amount of work accomplished. “We’re still going to pull the city out of this stuff within 12 hours,” Nespoli said. “By (Tuesday) morning, when the public’s ready to come back to work, everything will be open.” Earlier this year, Nespoli predicted the city would have trouble responding to a major snow storm. In September, when the mayor announced his decision to impose a citywide hiring freeze, Nespoli called the hiring stoppage a “foolish move.” “I don’t think it’s wise or safe,” Nespoli told the Journal at the time. “He should be hiring and maintaining the most important services for the public.” Nespoli said Monday he’s hoping the mayor will replenish the ranks as the economy improves. “We’re hoping that as soon as the economy and the city turn around a little more now, we can get back to our headcount,” he said. “When something like this here, as devastating as what this city got hit with yesterday and today, the more man power you have the better it is.” Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, confirmed that there are 400 fewer total workers at the department compared with two years ago. “However, the number of people assigned to snow fighting is the same,” Post said. “How? Other staff normally working in administrative positions have been reassigned to field posts.” While Nespoli argued that the staffing reduction had an impact on the city’s response, Post insisted workers are staffing the same number of plows and sanding trucks “as ever.” Blizzard, Budget, Snow December 27, 2010 Choreographing a Snowplow Ballet, to Mixed Reviews (Again) By RUSS BUETTNER In the city’s plan, it is envisioned as something like a ballet of behemoths, with a fleet of more than 2,000 garbage trucks swooping through the streets, brushing aside tons of snow as quickly as possible. But like most things in New York, each snowstorm brings a flurry of disagreement over how well that production has come off. The blizzard that covered the city Sunday and Monday was no exception. Even before the high winds and snow ended Monday morning, cries of neglect could be heard across the five boroughs. “They don’t care about Brooklyn, man,” said Tito Ernest, 32, who was trying to dig out a black Honda Accord stuck in the middle of the intersection of Rutland Road and Rockaway Parkway. “They had every chance to come out here to plow since last night.” The city’ s sanitation commissioner, John J. Doherty, who oversees snow removal efforts, said he understood people’s frustration, but he asked for cooperation, patience and a little historical perspective. Mr. Doherty said that in 1996 it took the city 34 hours to clear the streets after a blizzard dumped 20 inches of snow, roughly the same amount that had fallen by Monday afternoon. “I would like to reduce that time if I could,” he said. “I’ll have to see how successful I’ll be.” Despite the complaints of favoritism, city officials said their plan of attack for clearing snow had nothing to do with geographic preferences — say, plowing certain boroughs or neighborhoods before others — and everything to do with the type of street. The plan divides roadways into three major categories: arterial, secondary and tertiary. Arterial streets are the main thoroughfares, which are typically bus routes and are cleared first. The next focus is secondary streets, which are generally the straight roadways that feed into arterial streets. Tertiary roads, the narrow and sometimes curved residential streets that feed into secondary streets, are the last to be plowed. That means that much of Manhattan, with its concentration of arterial streets, gets quicker attention. Within each of those three categories, roadways are assigned numeric values, which are used both to set priorities and to assign routes. Those determinations are made and reviewed each year by the commanders in each of 59 sanitation districts, or commands, which match the boundaries of community boards. As a storm approaches, the first line of attack is a pre-emptive strike by 365 spreaders, each holding as much as 16 tons of salt. On Sunday, they were deployed before the snow began falling. Once the snowfall totals two inches, about 1,700 city garbage trucks fitted with plows hit the streets. Mr. Doherty said those plows could often move on to secondary streets as the snow fell, but the snowfall and drifts in this blizzard kept the trucks on the arterial roadways well into Monday morning. Plows were also hindered by abandoned cars stuck in the middle of secondary streets, and in a few cases plow operators could not see those obstacles through the darkness and blowing snow until they, too, were stuck. Further, the department must typically replow where car owners have shoveled snow back into the streets. Mr. Doherty said the secondary streets, which he anticipated being cleared Monday night and Tuesday, presented special difficulties with this much snow: It can be too much for even a 20-ton garbage truck, so front-end loaders must pick it up and move it. “If you go in there with one of our collection trucks, if you are not careful, you will get bogged down,” he said. “As strong as it is, they cannot push that much snow out of the way.” The Sanitation Department also looks beyond its own equipment and workforce, hiring as many as 900 day laborers to shovel bus stops and sidewalks. And private operators of heavy equipment like front-end loaders and dump trucks are hired to help out. Mr. Doherty said that outside operators had been a component of the city’s plan for decades, but that their response for this storm had been low. It typically takes 36 hours to make a pass through all of the smaller roads, said Vito A. Turso, a Sanitation Department spokesman. That timeline would beat a 1994 snow plan by the Giuliani administration, which estimated that 16 inches of fresh snow would take three to six days to clear from tertiary streets. Snow removal has been laced with political overtones since 1969, when an outcry from Queens over the pace of street clearing after a blizzard knocked the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay on its heels. In 1996, Howard Golden, then the Brooklyn borough president, accused Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of devoting more resources to Staten Island, which had been important to Mr. Giuliani’s election. On Monday, Peter F. Vallone Jr., a City Council member who represents Astoria, Queens, said his neighborhood was being treated poorly. “The only plow I saw all day was the one that crashed into the corner near my house,” said Mr. Vallone, who added that the Council’s public safety committee, which he leads, would hold a hearing on the city’s handling of the storm. “We need an explanation,” Mr. Vallone said. “Is it budget cuts? Is it a lack of planning? What caused this storm to be different from every other one we’ve lived through?” Mr. Doherty said the cutbacks that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had ordered in the Sanitation Department’s budget had not hurt the city’s response. And he laughed off a question about whether political concerns played a role in setting road-clearing priorities. “No,” Mr. Doherty said. “Because if you play politics, you get fired very quickly. You have to do your job, and you have to treat everybody the same.” Snow job! Brooklyn pols blast lackluster storm response Brooklyn pols blast city for lackluster storm response By Gary Buiso Monday, December 27, 2010 11:09 PM EST Comment (No comments posted.) Email To a Friend Brooklyn received a one-two punch on Monday — first when Mother Nature pummeled us with the sixth-largest snowstorm ever, then when City Hall didn’t do enough to clear the streets of the most-important borough. The blizzard that dumped two feet of snow ended in the wee hours on Monday, but hundreds of streets throughout Brooklyn remained untouched by city plows all day, stranding and endangering residents, and infuriating critics. And elevated subway tracks — common in Brooklyn, though virtually unheard of in Manhattan — were rendered impassable all day long (though limited service on the F line was restored by 10:30 pm and was expected to be available for Tuesday’s rush hour). “This isn’t the worst storm we’ve ever had, but it seems to be the worst response to any major storm in recent memory,” said Councilman Steve Levin (D–Williamsburg). Indeed, much of Brooklyn remained inaccessible by public or private transportation. Major arteries, such as Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint and Fourth Avenue in Park Slope were impassable. And Southern Brooklyn was no better off. “Here, in the ‘outer-boroughs,’ we are used to being the step-children of Manhattan and waiting for available plows, but there are major streets in my district that haven’t see a plow at all,” Councilman David Greenfield (D–Midwood) said around midday. “I’ve never seen such a wholesale failure of government to provide basic services.” Borough President Markowitz agreed. “I would doubt the Upper East Side is like this. Or the Upper West Side for that matter,” he said. “Something happened in this snowstorm that we got behind the curve. Something came up short, and Brooklyn … took the brunt of it.” But Sanitation officials saw things differently. ADVERTISEMENT “There is no difference for any borough,” said agency spokesman Keith Mellis. “It’s the same plan we use for the entire city.” The city insisted that the culprit was simply the storm’s ferocity, though abandoned cars at a variety of intersections didn’t help the clean-up effort. At the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 21st Street in the South Slope, for example, a traffic jam of abandoned cars imprisoned a plow, rendering the vehicle impotent. The same scene played out down in Midwood, on Avenue N and East 13th Street. “I don’t want to hit the parked cars,” a Sanitation worker told our photographer on a side street, explaining why he didn’t risk moving down the narrow road. The agency said it assembled 365 salt spreaders, 1,700 plows and 2,000 workers to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg didn’t exactly feel the borough’s pain, saying at a Monday news conference that “the world has not come to an end.” “The city’s going on,” he added. “Many people are taking the day off. Most stores are open. There’s no reason for anyone to panic.” At press time, no weather-related deaths have been reported. The roof of a parking garage on Second Street in Park Slope collapsed because of the snow, shutting down Fourth Avenue from Atlantic Avenue to Eighth Street. And things weren’t all bad. At least not for WR Hardware on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, where White Monday became Black Friday. “People were lined up in front of the door this morning,” said manager Martin G, whose hottest sellers were ice choppers, shovels, window-washing fluid and salt. A snowstorm “always helps,” he added. And in Gowanus, fresh air was a welcome respite from the familiar, fetid odor arising from the polluted Gowanus Canal. “This is one of those rare occasions that you can’t smell the stink,” said President Street resident Linda Mariano. Brooklyn’s business hub — the Metrotech complex, which includes the Community Newspaper Group Building — was all but abandoned, save for a handful of hurried pedestrians, and a small boy with plastic bags strangely tied over his winter boots, frolicking in a massive snowdrift. Train service was suspended in much of southern Brooklyn, trapping the area in a snowy isolation. “We haven’t been plowed and we can’t get out,” said Edith Storch, a resident of Sea Gate, a private community near Coney Island, that is without public transportation altogether. “I don’t see my way out of here. We were praying we don’t need medical care.” Transit spokeswoman Deirdre Parker said the storm scuttled the agency’s pre-blizzard preparations, which included moving trains from outdoor yards to enclosed areas. “It just overwhelmed our equipment,” she said. Ice on the electrified rail stalled trains, some as long as seven hours. “We had snow blowers, but at some point during a blizzard, it just blows right back.” Suspended train service meant a rare day of silence for those living adjacent to the elevated tracks. “It’s very quiet here today,” said Barbara Donnelly, who has lived on E. 15th Street and Avenue P, near the Q and B trains, for the past 55 years. “It seems strange without them.” 'South Park' and the Informal Fatwa The veiled threats against the Comedy Central show's creators should be taken very seriously. By AYAAN HIRSI ALI 'South Park" is hilarious, right? Not any more. Last week, Zachary Adam Chesser—a 20-year-old Muslim convert who now goes by the name Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee—posted a warning on the Web site RevolutionMuslim.com following the 200th episode of the show on Comedy Central. The episode, which trotted out many celebrities the show has previously satirized, also "featured" the Prophet Muhammad: He was heard once from within a U-Haul truck and a second time from inside a bear costume. For this apparent blasphemy, Mr. Amrikee warned that co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone "will probably end up" like Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh, readers will remember, was the Dutch filmmaker who was brutally murdered in 2004 on the streets of Amsterdam. He was killed for producing "Submission," a film that criticized the subordinate role of women in Islam, with me. There has been some debate about whether Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker should view the Web posting as a direct threat. Here's Mr. Amrikee's perspective: "It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome," he told Foxnews.com. "They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It's just the reality." He's also published the home and office addresses of Messrs. Stone and Parker, as well as images of Van Gogh's body. According to First Amendment experts, technically speaking this posting does not constitute a threat. And general opinion seems to be that even if this posting was intended as a threat, Mr. Amrikee and his ilk are merely fringe extremists who are disgruntled with U.S. foreign policy; their "outrage" merits little attention. This raises the question: How much harm can an Islamist fringe group do in a free society? The answer is a lot. Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim first thought to have been a minor character in radical circles, killed Theo van Gogh. Only during the investigation did it emerge that he was the ringleader of the Hofstad Group, a terrorist organization that was being monitored by the Dutch Secret Service. The story was very similar in the case of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons, drawn by Kurt Westergaard, were published in September 2005 to little notice but exploded five months later into an international drama complete with riots and flag-burnings. The man behind this campaign of outrage was an Egyptian-born radical imam named Ahmed Abu-Laban. Prior to this conflagration, Mr. Abu-Laban was seen as a marginal figure. Yet his campaign ended up costing Denmark businesses an estimated $170 million in the spring of 2006. And this doesn't include the cost of rebuilding destroyed property and protecting the cartoonists. So how worried should the creators of "South Park" be about the "marginal figures" who now threaten them? Very. In essence, Mr. Amrikee's posting is an informal fatwa. Here's how it works: There is a basic principle in Islamic scripture—unknown to most not-so-observant Muslims and most non-Muslims—called "commanding right and forbidding wrong." It obligates Muslim males to police behavior seen to be wrong and personally deal out the appropriate punishment as stated in scripture. In its mildest form, devout people give friendly advice to abstain from wrongdoing. Less mild is the practice whereby Afghan men feel empowered to beat women who are not veiled. By publicizing the supposed sins of Messrs. Stone and Parker, Mr. Amrikee undoubtedly believes he is fulfilling his duty to command right and forbid wrong. His message is not just an opinion. It will appeal to like-minded individuals who, even though they are a minority, are a large and random enough group to carry out the divine punishment. The best illustration of this was demonstrated by the Somali man who broke into Mr. Westergaard's home in January carrying an axe and a knife. Any Muslim, male or female, who knows about the "offense" may decide to perform the duty of killing those who insult the prophet. So what can be done to help Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone? The first step is for them to consult with experts on how to stay safe. Even though living with protection, as I do now in Washington, D.C., curtails some of your freedom, it is better than risking the worst. Much depends on how far the U.S. government is prepared to contribute to their protection. According to the Danish government, protecting Mr. Westergaard costs the taxpayers $3.9 million, excluding technical operating equipment. That's a tall order at a time of intense fiscal pressure. One way of reducing the cost is to organize a solidarity campaign. The entertainment business, especially Hollywood, is one of the wealthiest and most powerful industries in the world. Following the example of Jon Stewart, who used the first segment of his April 22 show to defend "South Park," producers, actors, writers, musicians and other entertainers could lead such an effort. Another idea is to do stories of Muhammad where his image is shown as much as possible. These stories do not have to be negative or insulting, they just need to spread the risk. The aim is to confront hypersensitive Muslims with more targets than they can possibly contend with. Another important advantage of such a campaign is to accustom Muslims to the kind of treatment that the followers of other religions have long been used to. After the "South Park" episode in question there was no threatening response from Buddhists, Christians and Jews—to say nothing of Tom Cruise and Barbra Streisand fans—all of whom had far more reason to be offended than Muslims. Islamists seek to replace the rule of law with that of commanding right and forbidding wrong. With over a billion and a half people calling Muhammad their moral guide, it is imperative that we examine the consequences of his guidance, starting with the notion that those who depict his image or criticize his teachings should be punished. In "South Park," this tyrannical rule is cleverly needled when Tom Cruise asks the question: How come Muhammad is the only celebrity protected from ridicule? Now we know why. Ms. Ali, a former member of the Dutch parliament, is the author of "Nomad: From Islam to America—A Personal Journey through the Clash of Civilizations," which will be published next month by Free Press. Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com March 3, 2007 An Iraqi Tribal Chief Opposes the Jihadists, and Prays By EDWARD WONG BAGHDAD, March 2 — The sheik stared at the cake that the hotel workers had brought up to his room as a gift. Across the red gelatinlike surface was written, “God protect you from the enemies and keep you for the Iraqi people.” God is indeed his guardian, said the sheik, Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi. So were the three burly Iraqi men standing outside the door of his suite here in the Mansour Hotel, and the five others by the elevators at the end of the hall. They had walkie-talkies, Kalashnikov rifles and camouflage vests stuffed with ammunition clips. The sheik needs as much protection as loyalty and prayers can bring, not to mention money. He is the public face of the Sunni Arab tribes in lawless Anbar Province who have turned against the Sunni jihadists of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, many of whom belong to other, sometimes more militant Iraqi tribes. “I swear to God, if we have good weapons, if we have good vehicles, if we have good support, I can fight Al Qaeda all the way to Afghanistan,” he said recently as he sat smoking in a dark jacket and brown robes while meeting with a sheik from another Sunni tribe in his hotel room. Sheik Abdul Sattar, a wiry 35-year-old with a thin goatee who comes from the provincial capital, Ramadi, is the most outspoken Sunni tribal figure in the country who is fighting, at least for now, on the side of the Shiite-led Iraqi government and the American military. He has met three times with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki since announcing his campaign in September, and there is talk that the sheik has received large amounts of money from the Iraqi government or the Americans. His face has been shown in anti-insurgent commercials on the government-run Iraqiya television network. But Sheik Abdul Sattar, as he is known to Iraqis and American commanders, complains that he does not get nearly enough financial or military support. “We don’t have enough weapons, cars, uniforms,” he said. Part of the sheik’s mission is rooted in the tribal law of revenge. His father was killed by Al Qaeda in 2004 for opposing its kind of fundamentalism. Two brothers were abducted and never heard from again, and a third brother was shot dead, he said. He has survived three car bombs outside the home he shares with his wife and five children. Residents in parts of Anbar say the split in the Sunni insurgency is widening, with moderate tribal leaders and nationalist guerrillas pitted against fundamentalist warriors and rival tribes. That has led to a sharp increase in Sunni-on-Sunni violence across Anbar, especially in the past week, deepening the chaos of Iraq’s civil war. Al Qaeda remains a major force, and the relentless violence from all sides has turned the province into a failed region, according to a classified Marine intelligence assessment that was leaked to reporters last year. As part of a broad review of options in Iraq, President Bush is looking at whether to give greater support to Sunni Arab tribal leaders who have grown disillusioned with the radical arm of the insurgency. It is a strategy long urged by officials in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and now vigorously backed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The effort would have echoes of the American military’s promotion of South Vietnamese “village militias” during the Vietnam War, which some American counterinsurgency experts say was a relative success. Sheik Abdul Sattar and the Anbar Salvation Council, the group of 25 tribes that the sheik said he had helped pull together to fight Al Qaeda, would be central to any such move by the Americans. The sheik said he and his allies, who also call themselves the Anbar Awakening, had recruited 6,000 fighters from the tribes into the Anbar police, helped appoint a new provincial police chief and formed a 2,500-member “emergency brigade” answering to him. A United States Army civil affairs officer in Ramadi, Capt. Travis L. Patriquin, said in an e-mail message shortly before he was killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi in December that the tribal fighters in the Iraqi police constituted “the first successful, large force of men we’ve had since the start of the war.” The captain wrote of Sheik Abdul Sattar, “He is the most effective local leader in Ramadi I believe the coalition has worked with since they arrived in Anbar in 2003.” Once the Anbar Salvation Council began its recruitment efforts, more than 300 people a month signed up to join the Iraqi police, up from just 30 in May, Captain Patriquin said. American commanders have armed the recruits with weapons, munitions and vehicles provided by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The Americans have also taken the recruits to academies in Jordan or Baghdad for schooling and given them a week of specialized combat training at an American base in Ramadi. The plan has risks. The Americans and governing Shiite parties could be building up a Sunni militia that will eventually turn against them, as one such group, the Falluja Brigade, did in 2004 after the Marines handed it control of Falluja. Some moderate Sunni sheiks in Anbar have said that for purposes of survival, they might be forced to ally themselves with Al Qaeda if the American military and, in particular, the Shiite-led Iraqi government did not provide them with more money and weapons, given the powerful presence of Al Qaeda in the province. Sheik Abdul Sattar speaks of the Iraqi government with ambivalence, praising its stated goals while criticizing its ties to Shiite militias and its ignorance of the power of the tribes. “They’re not cooperative, and they don’t want security,” he said. “This is true of all the political blocs.” He has been to Baghdad twice to ask senior Iraqi officials for financial backing and equipment. He has met with the prime minister and with Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister. But he said Iraqi leaders here were reluctant to give him what he needed to fight Al Qaeda. An adviser to the Iraqi cabinet on tribal affairs, Sheik Minahi Minshid Hussein al-Shammari, said the government had responded to Sheik Abdul Sattar’s requests “within a limited capacity,” because “this is what the government can give.” “The government extends a hand to anyone who wants to cooperate,” he added. The formation of the group in September shocked many Sunni Arabs. It was the most public stand anyone in Anbar had taken against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which was founded by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In November, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, the leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line Sunni religious group that calls itself the “legitimate resistance,” denounced the Anbar Salvation Council in a television interview, saying, “They don’t represent the Anbar tribes, and they are a group of criminals and thugs.” Sheik Abdul Sattar said his tribe, the Rishawi, which accounts for a tenth of the 400,000 residents of Ramadi, had always tried to make peace with the Americans in Anbar. That was one reason his father was killed while attending a funeral more than two years ago, he said. Al Qaeda had begun killing sheiks and clerics, even selling videos of the crimes. “They became people who didn’t distinguish between right and wrong, and that’s when we believed these people were terrorists,” he said. Recent violence in Anbar has underscored the brutality of the fighting among the Sunnis there. Two soccer players in Ramadi had been shot dead in front of teammates by masked gunmen who had accused them of having ties to the Anbar Salvation Council. On Thursday, a car bomb in Falluja killed at least seven people in a policeman’s wedding party, while intense fighting broke out in Amariyat, a community to the south where residents say tribes aligned with Al Qaeda have been battling nationalist insurgent groups. A car bomb next to a Ramadi mosque killed 15 people on Monday, and a truck bomb exploded in Habbaniya on Feb. 24, killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens, outside a Sunni mosque where the imam had been preaching resistance to Al Qaeda. In their clashes with Al Qaeda, the sheik’s tribal fighters have captured about 80 militants and put them into a “prison” in Ramadi, the sheik said. Saudis and Syrians were among them, he said. The Saudis, under interrogation, said they had been recruited in their home country by being shown anti-American propaganda, including images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the sheik said. Then they were shipped off to Syria to enter Iraq. The sheik has little love for the Syrian government. One morning as he ate breakfast in his hotel room, a television program about the assassination of the Lebanese cabinet member Pierre Gemayel on Nov. 21 came on. “This is all Syria’s doing,” he said. “Syria is doing bad things.” Just as nefarious is Iran, with its ties to the Shiite militias, Sheik Abdul Sattar said. “In my personal opinion, and in the opinion of most of the wise men of Anbar, if the American forces leave right now, there will be civil war and the area will fall into total chaos,” he said. “If we complete the police and the army, if we make them strong enough, it’ll be possible for the American forces to leave and go home, and they’ll be friends of the Iraqis.” The evening call to prayer echoed through the streets of Baghdad as he ended the talk. Darkness had fallen. The sheik got up to show two foreign visitors from his room, warning them that no one could ensure their safety at that hour. Four of his men were shot dead while driving through the capital the previous day, he said, and they surely would not be the last. Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Helene Cooper from Washington. rk Times Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By December 21, 2006 Al Qaeda Warns U.S. on Fighting in Muslim Lands By MONA EL-NAGGAR CAIRO, Dec. 20 — Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s second in command, has threatened the United States with more attacks if it does not end its military activity in Muslim countries. He spoke on a videotape broadcast Wednesday on Al Jazeera’s news channel. “If we are attacked in our countries, then we will not stop attacking you in your countries,” he said. On the tape, he also appears to reproach Hamas, the militant Islamic group that won Palestinian elections in January and now heads the government, for taking part in the formal political process and undermining “holy war” or resistance efforts. In his remarks aimed at the United States, Mr. Zawahri warned of “more failures” if the United States failed to negotiate with the “real force in the Islamic world.” “You are trying, in a panic, to find an exit from the disasters surrounding you in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he says on the tape, appearing impassive. “It looks like you will go through a painful journey of failed negotiations until you come back, forced to negotiate with the real force.” Mr. Zawahri has made about 15 taped appearances this year in which he has repeatedly threatened the United States and other Western countries with more attacks. “Part of the reason for his appearance in the media is just to assert the presence of Al Qaeda on the scene,” said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert in Islamic movements at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “The other part is to counter the noticeable rise of political Islam in the region.” Mr. Rashwan was referring to groups like Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and others that want to establish a state based on Islamic law but are seeking power through politics. “How did they not demand an Islamic constitution for Palestine before entering these elections?” Mr. Zawahri said in a clear reference to Hamas. “Are they not an Islamic movement?” Al Qaeda deems any dealing that is “based on secular constitutions” un-Islamic. Osama Hamdan, a representative of Hamas in Lebanon, said in response, “We do not see the contradiction in being an Islamic movement and taking part in democratic elections that are in accordance with general Islamic principles.” Washington - Obama Administration Denies Visas to Israeli Nuclear Scientists Published on: April 8th, 2010 at 07:15 PM News Source: Pajamas Media translation Washington - The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation’s Dimona nuclear reactor. According to a report in Israeli newspaper Maariv : “…. workers at the Dimona reactor who submitted visa requests to visit the United States for ongoing university education in Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering — have all been rejected, specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor. This is a new policy decision of the Obama administration, since there never used to be an issue with the reactor’s workers from study in the USA, and till recently, they received visas and studied in the USA.” Israeli defense officials are stating these workers have no criminal records in the U.S. or Israel and have been singled out purely because of their place of employment. Moreover, nuclear materials for the Dimona reactor apparently do not come from the U.S. Zeev Alfasi — head of nuclear engineering at Israel’s Ben Gurion University — states that “the United States doesn’t sell anything nuclear-related to the Dimona reactor, and that means absolutely nothing. Radiation detectors, for example, have to be purchased now in France because the USA refuses to sell these to Israel.” Ann Gavel Accreditation Specialist Network Accreditation Services (A PRS Affiliate) 1-866-606-3211 724-805-0314 Fax The American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics is your Accreditation Organization. NASI is not an Accreditation Organization. A Surveyor identifying themselves as being from ABCOPP will be conducting your onsite survey for Accreditation. If you do not let the ABCOPP Surveyor conduct the onsite survey, your Pharmacy will be placed at the end of the list and you may miss the September 30th, 2009 DMEPOS Accreditation Deadline. You will also be assessed a re-survey fee." Important: NASI is NOT your accreditation organization. ABCOPP is your CMS approved accreditation organization. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication should be considered proprietary and confidential and is intended only for the use of the recipient named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRS, Inc. If you received this in error, please re-send this communication to the sender and delete the original message and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you. From ann.gavel@prsrx.com Wed Jan 27 16:24:30 2010 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Delivered-To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Received: from prs.digitalrazor.com (prs.digitalrazor.com [216.221.10.115]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF9F09C1FC for ; Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:24:30 -0500 (EST) Received: from FL1NASI12 (216.221.5.82.static.digitalrazor.com [216.221.5.82]) by prs.digitalrazor.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o0RLMrmU028478 for ; Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:22:56 -0500 Reply-To: From: "Ann Gavel" To: Subject: audit Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:25:01 -0500 Organization: PRS Pharmacy Services Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_001A_01CA9F6D.467A9210" X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Thread-index: Acqfly8chUTd7N9STcuBrEg/5moYrg== X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5579 Status: RO Content-Length: 8998 Lines: 219 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_001A_01CA9F6D.467A9210 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Beneficiary Records Audit File name: Not found in manual; documented audit findings on Pharmacy/facility letterhead to include analysis and applicable corrective action plan Pharmacy is to audit a sampling of their beneficiary records quarterly. They determine the appropriate percentage of records to audit. They are to submit their audit findings on letterhead to include analysis and applicable corrective action plan. Each Audit should be documented on a separate Report. Points of Compliance: . All pharmacies should have beneficiaries complete the Beneficiary Information form maintain Beneficiary Records; therefore an audit should be conducted . Ensure that submitted information reflects the quarterly audit completed immediately prior to the audit item due date (they should not be sending an audit from 1st quarter 2008 for an audit due March of 2010) Ann Gavel Accreditation Specialist Network Accreditation Services (A PRS Affiliate) 1-866-606-3211 724-805-0314 Fax The American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics is your Accreditation Organization. NASI is not an Accreditation Organization. A Surveyor identifying themselves as being from ABCOPP will be conducting your onsite survey for Accreditation. If you do not let the ABCOPP Surveyor conduct the onsite survey, your Pharmacy will be placed at the end of the list and you may miss the September 30th, 2009 DMEPOS Accreditation Deadline. You will also be assessed a re-survey fee." Important: NASI is NOT your accreditation organization. ABCOPP is your CMS approved accreditation organization. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication should be considered proprietary and confidential and is intended only for the use of the recipient named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRS, Inc. If you received this in error, please re-send this communication to the sender and delete the original message and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you. ------=_NextPart_000_001A_01CA9F6D.467A9210 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Beneficiary=20 Records Audit

File name:  Not found in manual; documented = audit=20 findings on Pharmacy/facility letterhead to include analysis and = applicable=20 corrective action plan

Pharmacy is to = audit a=20 sampling of their beneficiary records quarterly.  They determine the appropriate = percentage of records to audit. =20 They are to submit their audit findings on letterhead to include = analysis=20 and applicable corrective action plan. =20 Each Audit should be documented on a separate=20 Report.

 

Points of=20 Compliance:

·        =20 All pharmacies = should have=20 beneficiaries complete the Beneficiary Information form maintain = Beneficiary=20 Records; therefore an audit should be = conducted

·        =20 Ensure that submitted information reflects the = quarterly=20 audit completed immediately prior to the audit item due date (they = should not be=20 sending an audit from 1st quarter 2008 for an audit due March = of=20 2010)

 
Ann=20 Gavel
Accreditation Specialist
Network Accreditation Services (A PRS Affiliate)
1-866-606-3211
724-805-0314 Fax

The American Board for = Certification in=20 Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics is your Accreditation=20 Organization. =20 NASI is not an Accreditation Organization.  A = Surveyor=20 identifying themselves as being from ABCOPP will be conducting your = onsite=20 survey for Accreditation.  If you do not let the ABCOPP Surveyor = conduct=20 the onsite survey, your Pharmacy will be placed at the end of the list = and you=20 may miss the September 30th, 2009 DMEPOS Accreditation=20 Deadline.  You will also be assessed a re-survey = fee.”=20

 Important: =20 NASI is NOT your accreditation organization.  ABCOPP is your CMS = approved=20 accreditation organization.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:

The information = contained in this=20 communication should be considered proprietary and confidential and is = intended=20 only for the use of the recipient named above. If the reader of this = message is=20 not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any = dissemination,=20 distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, = is=20 strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRS, Inc. If = you=20 received this in error, please re-send this communication to the sender = and=20 delete the original message and any copy of it from your computer = system.=20 Thank = you.

 
------=_NextPart_000_001A_01CA9F6D.467A9210-- New York - Senate Democrats passed controversial legislation Tuesday that would remove New York’s distinction of being the only state without a no-fault divorce law. Currently, couples can only get divorced in New York if there is a finding of fault, such as adultery or abandonment, or if both spouses agree on a separation and live apart for a year or more. “The requirement of finding fault is often unfair to children and horrendous for victims of domestic violence, trapped in abusive marriages with no way out without the consent of the abuser,” said Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, D-Mount Vernon, Westchester County, the lead sponsor of the no-fault bill. “By implementing a policy of no-fault divorce, this prolonged and often- destructive process would be eliminated,” she said. The bill, which was approved 32-29, would allow no-fault divorce after a marriage has “irretrievably” broken down for six months or more and after all financial and custody issues are resolved. The Senate easily passed two less-controversial bills Tuesday that would require counsel fees to be awarded at the onset of the divorce process and establish post-marital income guidelines. Both would ensure fairness for less-monied spouses, often women, proponents said. All three bills now go to the Assembly. Advertisement: State law doesn’t provide enough guidance on dividing the assets of future income fairly, said Hassell-Thompson, who is sponsoring the post-marital income bill too. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, Westchester County, the sponsor in her house, said “many judges don’t recognize that marriage is an economic partnership and when it dissolves, you have to give the non-monied spouse or the less-monied spouse the respect of having been in that partnership.” Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, is sponsoring the legal counsel bill. Judges have authority under current law to require the more-monied spouse to pay legal fees for the other spouse, but they are awarded inconsistently and often too late in the process to be helpful, Senate Democrats said. Among the supporters of the legislation are the Women’s Bar Association, the Legal Aid Society and the state Bar Association. “We strongly feel that passage of this bill is crucial for domestic-violence victims by allowing a quicker and far less confrontational end to the abusive marriage,” said attorney Michelle Haskin, co-chairwoman of the Matrimonial Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of New York. The bill will “spare litigants costly and lengthy court battles to prove fault” and protect children from emotional damage, she said. Opponents of the no-fault divorce bill include the state Catholic Conference, the National Organization for Women of New York State, and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, an evangelical Christian group. The no-fault bill sends the wrong message about marriage and its permanence, Catholic Conference spokesman Dennis Poust said. “We think it should be a little more work to get out of a marriage than to get out of a cell-phone contract,” he said. The conference doesn’t oppose the two other bills, Poust said. New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms believes that no-fault divorce causes an increase in divorce rates, reduces protections for spouses who want to continue marriages, hurts many women and children financially, takes away the rights of fathers over their children, and has other problems, according to a memo from the group. NOW of New York believes that the legislation on counsel fees and post-marital income guidelines should be approved and be in effect for a few years to see whether they are working for women, state President Marcia Pappas said. If they are successful, then lawmakers could take up no-fault divorce, she added. “We have believed and continue to believe that no-fault divorce puts the lesser- or non-monied spouse at a disadvantage when negotiating the terms of a divorce, and that person is generally a woman,” Pappas said, adding that legislators who vote for the bill are “turning their backs on women.” Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, said she was told by a New York lawyer when she was going through an amicable divorce in the 1980s that she would have to lie about her spouse or her spouse would have to lie about her in order to get a divorce immediately. They didn’t want to do that. She flew to Ohio, where her husband had moved, to get a no-fault divorce, she said. Back to front page » June 20, 2008, 4:29 pm The A.P. Asserts Tough (and Still Secret) View of Copyright on Blogs By Saul Hansell The Associated Press has punted on its commitment to clarify how much text it thinks bloggers and social news sites can reprint from its articles without violating The AP’s copyright. Indeed, the giant news organization appears to be insisting that bloggers cannot quote the headline of an A.P. story or its first paragraph. While the law is not settled, many lawyers suggest that such short excerpts are permitted under the “fair use” exception to the copyright laws. The issue came up after The A.P. — a not for profit group of 1,500 newspapers, including The New York Times — demanded that the Drudge Retort remove 10 posts that quoted between 40 and 80 words of its articles. After a storm of protest, The A.P. backed down and said it had been too heavy-handed in its initial complaint. It added that it hoped to publish guidance for bloggers suggesting how they can use A.P. content. On Thursday night, The A.P. published a statement saying that it had reached an accord with Rogers Cadenhead, the owner of the Drudge Retort (a parody of the better known Drudge Report): “Both parties consider the matter closed.” There was no word on any guidelines for other sites. The full A.P. statement didn’t offer any relevant facts and was so convoluted that it’s hard to imagine anyone writing that way could get hired as a reporter at The A.P.: In response to questions about the use of Associated Press content on the Drudge Retort web site, the AP was able to provide additional information to the operator of the site, Rogers Cadenhead, on Thursday. That information was aimed at enabling Mr. Cadenhead to bring the contributed content on his site into conformance with the policy he earlier set for his contributors. Both parties consider the matter closed. In addition, the AP has had a constructive exchange of views this week with a number of interested parties in the blogging community about the relationship between news providers and bloggers and that dialogue will continue. The resolution of this matter illustrates that the interests of bloggers can be served while still respecting the intellectual property rights of news providers. Paul Colford, the A.P. director of media relations, declined to discuss the matter at all. He said that Tom Curley, The A.P.’s chief executive, would also not discuss the matter, nor would anyone else at the organization. Mr. Cadenhead, did publish a post on his blog about the matter. And Robert Cox, the president of the Media Bloggers Association, a group that helped Mr. Cadenhead negotiate with The A.P ., also offered his take. I spoke to both of them earlier today. Here’s what seems to have happened: On Thursday night, The A.P.’s lawyers spent two hours on the telephone with Mr. Cadenhead going over their objections to each of the items. There was not one of them, Mr. Cadenhead told me, that was acceptable in its original format. The A.P. said that if Mr. Cadenhead made certain changes, it would withdraw its demand that the posts be removed from his site. Mr. Cadenhead told me that upon reflection he decided not to repost the modified items. But he figured he would take The A.P.’s standards into account for future posts that link to its articles. His main goal, he said, was to avoid a protracted legal battle. Mr. Cadenhead declined to tell me exactly what The A.P. wanted changed. He did say that one key issue is the A.P. wants to protect the headline and first paragraph of its articles. He suggested that this will put The Associated Press in direct conflict with bloggers. “If AP’s guidelines end up like the ones they shared with me, we’re headed for a Napster-style battle on the issue of fair use,” Mr. Cadenhead wrote on his blog. Although The A.P. wouldn’t talk to me, several people I interviewed who have spoken to A.P. executives this week said the organization appears to be internally conflicted and has not yet been able to come up with a clear fair-use position. But unless something changes, Mr. Cadenhead’s experience indicates that The A.P. is going to assert a much stricter interpretation of fair use than most people on the Internet are used to. That will present bloggers and social news sites with a dilemma: If they chose to quote The A.P. as they’ve been doing, they are risking getting into a legal fight that well could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Cox said that there were organizations willing to help Mr. Cadenhead with the legal bills. However, the unsettled state of the law makes it a gamble to take the matter to court. “For the blogosphere in general, there is a risk The A.P. could win that case, and therefore set a precedent that no blogger would want set,” Mr. Cox said. Plan lacks any input from oil field workers Hollywood has made several movies that center on how humans could destroy an asteroid or comet that was on a trajectory to hit the Earth. Some astronomers believe that the chance of an asteroid impact is high enough to warrant preparation and plans to be readied to prevent such a catastrophe. The most credible asteroid threat to the Earth that we know of today is the Apophis asteroid that was estimated to have a one in 250,000 chance of striking the Earth. NASA announced in October 2009 that the asteroid is expected to pass within 18,000 miles of Earth in 2029. NASA later said that it has "all but ruled out" the chance of the asteroid hitting the Earth in 2036. Despite NASA determining that the asteroid will not hit the Earth, Russian scientists are readying a plan to prevent the potential impact. The Russian plan reads like something Bruce Willis would be involved with, yet the plan is surprisingly void of oil field workers. The Russian researchers are considering a plan to send a spacecraft to bump the large asteroid to a safer orbit. Scientist Anatoly Perminov told a Russian radio station Golos Rossii, "People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people." He continued saying, "Calculations show that it's possible to create a special-purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision. The threat of collision can be averted." Perminov states that the details of the plan still need to be worked out, but he invited NASA, the ESA, and other space agencies to participate in the planning. The Guardian reports that space researcher Matt Genge from the Imperial College London has calculated that a spaceship to move the asteroid to a different trajectory would only need to have the approximate mass, acceleration, and thrust of a small car to push the asteroid out of the path of Earth in 75 days. Other methods to change the trajectory of an asteroid include mirrors, light, or paint to change the way the asteroid absorbs heat enough to shift its direction. These methods would take about 20 years to change the path of the asteroid. February 23, 2010 A Face-Off on the Safety of a Drug for Diabetes By GARDINER HARRIS Three years ago, Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, conducted a landmark study that suggested that the best-selling diabetes drug Avandia raised the risk of heart attacks. The study led to a Congressional inquiry, stringent safety warnings, a sharp drop in the drug’s sales and a plunge in the share price of GlaxoSmithKline, Avandia’s maker. The battle between Dr. Nissen and GlaxoSmithKline was waged from afar in news releases and published papers. But on May 10, 2007, 11 days before Dr. Nissen’s study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, he and four company executives met face to face in a private meeting whose details have not been disclosed until now. Fearing he would face pressure and criticism from executives, Dr. Nissen secretly recorded the meeting — which is legal in Ohio as long as one party to the conversation is aware of the taping. On a recent day in his sunny office at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Nissen shared the contents of the recording with The Times. What was said at the 2007 meeting raises questions about science and ethics that have suddenly become keenly relevant. A Congressional investigation released Saturday concluded that GlaxoSmithKline had threatened scientists who tried to point out Avandia’s risks, and internal memorandums from the Food and Drug Administration show that some government health officials want Avandia withdrawn. The drug is still being taken by hundreds of thousands of patients, and sales last year were $1.19 billion. So the battle over Avandia has begun anew, and issues raised in the meeting between the four executives and Dr. Nissen are likely to be raised again. For instance, during the meeting, company executives repeatedly promised to begin a crucial analysis of the safety of Avandia “within days.” Nearly three years later, such a study has not been published in a medical journal, although the company has posted results on its Web site. Also during the meeting, Dr. Ronald L. Krall, GlaxoSmithKline’s chief medical officer, predicted almost exactly the results of another crucial study of Avandia that was two months from publication and whose results, according to scientific protocols and the company itself, should have been kept secret from the company. In an interview, Dr. Nissen said the recording showed that the executives hoped to persuade him not to publish his study by suggesting that they had contradictory information they would share with him in a joint study. “In retrospect, it seems clear that neither statement was true,” Dr. Nissen said. “They did not have contradictory data, and they never intended to cooperate in any analyses.” In response to questions, GlaxoSmithKline said that its executives went to see Dr. Nissen to discuss a possible research collaboration and to review the safety information surrounding Avandia. “G.S.K. was not aware that Dr. Nissen secretly recorded the May 10 meeting and is disturbed to learn that he did so without advising G.S.K.,” the company said in an e-mail message. Dr. Krall, in an e-mail message on Monday, said he did not recall discussing potential results of the Avandia study in the meeting, but added that he did not learn the results “until many days after the meeting with Dr. Nissen.” The recording and events surrounding it offer a rare window into an unusual confrontation between a prominent cardiologist and one of the world’s biggest drug makers. Since industry is the source for much of the money and studies available in academic medicine, executives normally drive the agenda in such meetings. But GlaxoSmithKline was sued in 2004 by Eliot Spitzer, who was New York’s attorney general at the time, over the company’s failure to publicize studies that helped to reveal that antidepressants could lead children and teenagers to engage in suicidal behavior. The company settled the lawsuit by agreeing to post all of its clinical trial data. These Internet postings became the grist for Dr. Nissen’s analysis. During the meeting with Dr Nissen, the four executives spoke as if they did not know the results of Dr. Nissen’s still-unpublished study. And Dr. Nissen did not mention that he had already sent it to the journal, the recording shows. But a week before the meeting, the Congressional investigators said, GlaxoSmithKline had been secretly and inappropriately faxed a copy of Dr. Nissen’s manuscript by a journal reviewer who also worked as a consultant to GlaxoSmithKline. The company confirmed that the faxed copy of Dr. Nissen’s study had been read by its executives, “some of whom attended the meeting with Dr. Nissen.” Revealing this knowledge to Dr. Nissen was not the point of the meeting, the company said. This game of cat-and-mouse became, in retrospect, almost comical. At one point, the executives said that studies showed that Avandia had no impact on cardiac death rates. Dr. Nissen’s study had concluded that the risk was increased by 64 percent. “I get different numbers on this, but we’ll talk about it later,” Dr. Nissen said. “Hmm!” one executive responded. “I would like to hear more about that.” Another executive said, “That would be interesting to see.” “This is one that is important to us,” Dr. Krall concluded. At another point, Nevine Zariffa, a company statistician, asked what Dr. Nissen was studying. “So you’ve done a summary type meta-analysis looking at” heart attacks and heart-related deaths? she asked, precisely describing Dr. Nissen’s study. “That’s right,” Dr. Nissen answered, then asked rhetorically, “Now, what am I going to do? What is my responsibility? I mean, answer the question for me. Do I sit on it? Drug’s being used by how many people?” He was told that he should do an analysis that included information about when patients in trials suffered problems. Such detailed analyses are more reliable than the kind of study Dr. Nissen performed. Dr. Nissen lost patience regarding the increased risk of heart attacks, or myocardial ischemia, in Avandia patients. “I hope you guys understand how much trouble G.S.K. is in here,” he said. “You’ve got a bunch of people who are incredibly vulnerable to myocardial ischemia, and you’ve had evidence that you’re provoking ischemia in those people, and that is of grave public health consequences.” Dr. Krall asked Dr. Nissen if his opinion of Avandia would change if the Record trial — a large study then under way to assess Avandia’s risks to the heart — showed little risk. Dr. Krall said he did not know the results of Record. “Let’s suppose Record was done tomorrow and the hazard ratio was 1.12. What does...?” Dr. Krall said. “I’d pull the drug,” Dr. Nissen answered quickly. The interim results of Record were hastily published in The New England Journal of Medicine two months later and showed that patients given Avandia experienced 11 percent more heart problems than those given other treatments, for a hazard ratio of 1.11. But the trial was so poorly designed and conducted that investigators could not rule out the possibility that the differences between the groups were a result of chance. “Dr. Krall did not know what the point estimates of the Record interim analysis would be on May 10” because the company did not officially get access to the data until four days later, GlaxoSmithKline said. Even as Dr. Krall and the other executives tried to corral Dr. Nissen, executives were strategizing over how to blunt the impact of his study if it were published. But according to internal documents, the company’s own scientists had concluded that Dr. Nissen’s work was sound. In one internal e-mail message, the Congressional investigation found that a company statistician stated that “there is no statistical reason for disregarding the findings” of Dr. Nissen’s study. In another, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of research at GlaxoSmithKline, wrote that federal drug regulators, Dr. Nissen and the company’s own researchers all seemed to agree that studies of the drug showed that it substantially increased the risks of death and heart attacks, also known as ischemic events: “F.D.A., Nissen and G.S.K. all come to comparable conclusions regarding increased risk for ischemic events, ranging from 30 percent to 43 percent!” Dr. Slaoui wrote. In public comments after Dr. Nissen’s study was published, company executives insisted that the study had been “based on incomplete evidence and a methodology that the author admits has significant limitations.” Indeed, this battle was foreshadowed in the May 10 meeting when executives asked Dr. Nissen why he would publish his study if a more detailed look at the data — called a patient-level analysis — would provide a more reliable result. “But suppose we did this patient-level analysis and it looked very different from what you have?” Dr. Krall asked. “But there’s no way it can,” Dr. Nissen soon said. “Come on, guys. You already did your patient-level analysis for 42 trials. You’re about to add in two trials that went the wrong way. What do you think’s going to happen?” Dr. Krall said the two sides disagreed on the numbers. “And, you know, frankly, the last thing we want to do is get into a public debate about whose analysis is right. Now, sometimes that happens...” Dr. Krall said. “No, public debates are just fine,” Dr. Nissen interjected. “In fact, in science, the best way I know of to get to the truth is you just get it all out there and you let the chips fall where they may.” One of the executives responded: “And I supposed the science is the issue. And that’s why we think this patient-level approach is the right one.” “It is the right approach,” Dr. Nissen said. “Now I’m going to be equally blunt: you should have done this a long time ago.” That approach still has not been published in a medical journal. 2-18-2011 New York - A prominent Brooklyn rabbi has been sentenced to four years in prison in what prosecutors said was a plot to extort a Connecticut-based hedge fund into paying millions of dollars to two schools. Rabbi Balkany, founder and former dean of Bais Yaakov day school in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, had faced as much as nine years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. His lawyer, Alan Kaufman, has asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan to impose a "lenient" term. Kaufman said in court papers that Balkany deserves leniency because of a "lifetime of good deeds" and community service. Balkany has 13 children, including a handicapped daughter, and his family would suffer hardship if he were incarcerated, Kaufman said. Over 75 letters, sent from a broad spectrum of individuals helped by Rabbi Balkany wrote to the judge to asking for mercy in light of the Rabbi's lifetime commitment to charity and going above and beyond the call of duty throughout his years as the dean of the Bais Yaakov of Brooklyn. Several prominent figures in the Jewish community felt that the financial pressures caused by the recession influenced Rabbi Balkany to engage Steven Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors LP in an attempt to facilitate $4 million for his School and other Yeshivas. Advertisement: I'm just hoping and praying that your Honor will take the totality and will downward depart in this situation, so that so many innocent people…should not be negatively effected," Rabbi Balkany, 64 years old, said before sentencing. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ordered that Rabbi Balkany be jailed immediately after imposing sentence. "That was the major disappointment of the day," said Alan Kaufman, Rabbi Balkany's lawyer. "We didn't think and don't think he is a flight risk. We thought he should have been allowed to voluntarily surrender." In an exclusive statement released to VIN News, Zev Brenner President of Talkline Communications Network and host of Talkline with Zev Brenner said, that he is saddened by this outcome. "Today is a traditionally joyous day on the Jewish Calendar being Purim Kattan of a leap year, but it has been transformed into a sad one by the remanding of Rabbi Balkany right away to prison to begin a four year Sentence. said Brenner "I'm not sure of all that transpired and why it happened as it seems inconsistent with the charitable work that Rabbi Balkany is engaged in. I've had Rabbi Milton Balkany as a guest on our radio programs many times over the last 15 years and though we've had our differences, I found him to be committed to the Jewish people and having engaged in much communal work." ugust 31, 2009 A ‘Little Judge’ Who Rejects Foreclosures, Brooklyn Style By MICHAEL POWELL The judge waves you into his chambers in the State Supreme Court building in Brooklyn, past the caveat taped to his wall — “Be sure brain in gear before engaging mouth” — and into his inner office, where foreclosure motions are piled high enough to form a minor Alpine chain. Every week, the nation’s mightiest banks come to his court seeking to take the homes of New Yorkers who cannot pay their mortgages. And nearly as often, the judge says, they file foreclosure papers speckled with errors. He plucks out one motion and leafs through: a Deutsche Bank representative signed an affidavit claiming to be the vice president of two different banks. His office was in Kansas City, Mo., but the signature was notarized in Texas. And the bank did not even own the mortgage when it began to foreclose on the homeowner. The judge’s lips pucker as if he had inhaled a pickle; he rejected this one. “I’m a little guy in Brooklyn who doesn’t belong to their country clubs, what can I tell you?” he says, adding a shrug for punctuation. “I won’t accept their comedy of errors.” The judge, Arthur M. Schack, 64, fashions himself a judicial Don Quixote, tilting at the phalanxes of bankers, foreclosure facilitators and lawyers who file motions by the bale. While national debate focuses on bank bailouts and federal aid for homeowners that has been slow in coming, the hard reckonings of the foreclosure crisis are being made in courts like his, and Justice Schack’s sympathies are clear. He has tossed out 46 of the 102 foreclosure motions that have come before him in the last two years. And his often scathing decisions, peppered with allusions to the Croesus-like wealth of bank presidents, have attracted the respectful attention of judges and lawyers from Florida to Ohio to California. At recent judicial conferences in Chicago and Arizona, several panelists praised his rulings as a possible national model. His opinions, too, have been greeted by a cry of affront from a bank official or two, who say this judge stands in the way of what is rightfully theirs. HSBC bank appealed a recent ruling, saying he had set a “dangerous precedent” by acting as “both judge and jury,” throwing out cases even when homeowners had not responded to foreclosure motions. Justice Schack, like a handful of state and federal judges, has taken a magnifying glass to the mortgage industry. In the gilded haste of the past decade, bankers handed out millions of mortgages — with terms good, bad and exotically ugly — then repackaged those loans for sale to investors from Connecticut to Singapore. Sloppiness reigned. So many papers have been lost, signatures misplaced and documents dated inaccurately that it is often not clear which bank owns the mortgage. Justice Schack’s take is straightforward, and sends a tremor through some bank suites: If a bank cannot prove ownership, it cannot foreclose. “If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” he said. “I’m a strange guy — I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.” Justice Schack has small jowls and big black glasses, a thin mustache and not so many hairs combed across his scalp. He has the impish eyes of the high school social studies teacher he once was, aware that something untoward is probably going on at the back of his classroom. He is Brooklyn born and bred, with a master’s degree in history and an office loaded with autographed baseballs and photographs of the Brooklyn Dodgers. His written decisions are a free-associative trip through popular, legal and literary culture, with a sideways glance at the business pages. Confronted with a case in which Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs passed a defaulted mortgage back and forth and lost track of the documents, the judge made reference to the film classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the evil banker played by Lionel Barrymore. “Lenders should not lose sight,” Justice Schack wrote in that 2007 case, “that they are dealing with humanity, not with Mr. Potter’s ‘rabble’ and ‘cattle.’ Multibillion-dollar corporations must follow the same rules in the foreclosure actions as the local banks, savings and loan associations or credit unions, or else they have become the Mr. Potters of the 21st century.” Last year, he chastised Wells Fargo for filing error-filled papers. “The court,” the judge wrote, “reminds Wells Fargo of Cassius’s advice to Brutus in Act 1, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’: ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’ ” Then there is a Deutsche Bank case from 2008, the juicy part of which he reads aloud: “The court wonders if the instant foreclosure action is a corporate ‘Kansas City Shuffle,’ a complex confidence game,” he reads. “In the 2006 film ‘Lucky Number Slevin,’ Mr. Goodkat, a hit man played by Bruce Willis, explains: ‘A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.’ ” The banks’ reaction? Justice Schack shrugs. “They probably curse at me,” he says, “but no one is interested in some little judge.” Little drama attends the release of his decisions. Beaten-down homeowners rarely show up to contest foreclosure actions, and the judge scrutinizes the banks’ papers in his chambers. But at legal conferences, judges and lawyers have wondered aloud why more judges do not hold banks to tougher standards. “To the extent that judges examine these papers, they find exactly the same errors that Judge Schack does,” said Katherine M. Porter, a visiting professor at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a national expert in consumer credit law. “His rulings are hardly revolutionary; it’s unusual only because we so rarely hold large corporations to the rules.” Banks and the cottage industry of mortgage service companies and foreclosure lawyers also pay rather close attention. A spokeswoman for OneWest Bank acknowledged that an official, confronted with a ream of foreclosure papers, had mistakenly signed for two different banks — just as the Deutsche Bank official did. Deutsche Bank, which declined to let an attorney speak on the record about any of its cases before Justice Schack, e-mailed a PDF of a three-page pamphlet in which it claimed little responsibility for foreclosures, even though the bank’s name is affixed to tens of thousands of such motions. The bank described itself as simply a trustee for investors. Justice Schack came to his recent prominence by a circuitous path, having worked for 14 years as public school teacher in Brooklyn. He was a union representative and once walked a picket line with his wife, Dilia, who was a teacher, too. All was well until the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. “Why’d I go to law school?” he said. “Thank Mayor Abe Beame, who froze teacher salaries.” He was counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Association in the 1980s and ’90s, when it was on a long winning streak against team owners. “It was the millionaires versus the billionaires,” he says. “After a while, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘He’s making $4 million, he’s making $5 million, and I’m worth about $1.98.’ ” So he dived into a judicial race. He was elected to the Civil Court in 1998 and to the Supreme Court for Brooklyn and Staten Island in 2003. His wife is a Democratic district leader; their daughter, Elaine, is a lawyer and their son, Douglas, a police officer. Justice Schack’s duels with the banks started in 2007 as foreclosures spiked sharply. He saw a plague falling on Brooklyn, particularly its working-class black precincts. “Banks had given out loans structured to fail,” he said. The judge burrowed into property record databases. He found banks without clear title, and a giant foreclosure law firm, Steven J. Baum, representing two sides in a dispute. He noted that Wells Fargo’s chief executive, John G. Stumpf, made more than $11 million in 2007 while the company’s total returns fell 12 percent. “Maybe,” he advised the bank, “counsel should wonder, like the court, if Mr. Stumpf was unjustly enriched at the expense of W.F.’s stockholders.” He was, how to say it, mildly appalled. “I’m a guy from the streets of Brooklyn who happens to become a judge,” he said. “I see a bank giving a $500,000 mortgage on a building worth $300,000 and the interest rate is 20 percent and I ask questions, what can I tell you?” A TRUE STORY RECEIVED FROM AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR You know that book Men are from Mars, Women from Venus? Well, here's a prime example of that. This assignment was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca (last name deleted) and Gary (last name deleted). First, the Assignment: English 44A SMU Creative Writing Prof. Miller In-class Assignment for Wednesday: Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached. And now, the Assignment as submitted by Rebecca & Gary: Rebecca starts: At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favourite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So camomile was out of the question. Gary: Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed, asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit. Rebecca: He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychologically brutalising the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel", Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Gary: Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted, wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenceless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty, the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverise the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporised Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!" Rebecca: This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent. Gary: Yeah? Well, you're a self-centred, tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. Rebecca: Asshole. Gary: Bitch. May 4, 2010 Black Hopefuls Pick This Year in G.O.P. Races By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Among the many reverberations of President Obama’s election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials. The House has not had a black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years. But now black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary. Party officials and the candidates themselves acknowledge that they still have uphill fights in both the primaries and the general elections, but they say that black Republicans are running with a confidence they have never had before. They credit the marriage of two factors: dissatisfaction with the Obama administration, and the proof, as provided by Mr. Obama, that blacks can get elected. “I ran in 2008 and raised half a million dollars, and the state party didn’t support me and the national party didn’t support me,” said Allen West, who is running for Congress in Florida and is one of roughly five black candidates the party believes could win. “But we came back and we’re running and things are looking great.” But interviews with many of the candidates suggest that they felt empowered by Mr. Obama’s election, that it made them realize that what had once seemed impossible — for a black candidate to win election with substantial white support — was not. “There is no denying that one of the things that came out of the election of Obama was that you have a lot of African-Americans running in both parties now,” said Vernon Parker, who is running for an open seat in Arizona’s Third District. His competition in the Aug. 24 primary includes the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, Ben Quayle. Princella Smith, who is running for an open seat in Arkansas, said she viewed the president’s victory through both the lens of history and partisan politics. “Aside from the fact that I disagree fundamentally with all his views, I am proud of my nation for proving that we have the ability to do something like that,” Ms. Smith said. State and national party officials say that this year’s cast of black Republicans is far more experienced than the more fringy players of yore, and include elected officials, former military personnel and candidates who have run before. Mr. Parker is the mayor of Paradise Valley, Ariz. Ryan Frazier is a councilman in Aurora, Colo., one of four at-large members who represent the whole city. And Tim Scott is the only black Republican elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives since Reconstruction. “These are not just people pulled out of the hole,” said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a black conservative group. That is “the nice thing about being on this side of history,” he said. He added that the candidates might be helped by the presence of Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee who is black and ran for the Senate himself in 2006. “Party affiliation is not a barrier to inspiration,” Mr. Steele said in an e-mail message. “Certainly, the president’s election was and remains an inspiration to many.” But Democrats and other political experts express skepticism about black Republicans’ chances in November. “In 1994 and 2000, there were 24 black G.O.P. nominees,” said Donna Brazile, a Democratic political strategist who ran Al Gore’s presidential campaign and who is black. “And you didn’t see many of them win their elections.” Tavis Smiley, a prominent black talk show host who has repeatedly criticized Republicans for not doing more to court black voters, said, “It’s worth remembering that the last time it was declared the ‘Year of the Black Republican,’ it fizzled out.” In many ways, this subset of Republicans is latching on to the basic themes propelling most of their party’s campaigns this year — the call for smaller government, less spending and stronger national security — rather than building platforms around social conservatism. “Things have evolved,” said Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, who is heavily involved in recruiting Republican candidates. “I think partly the level of hostility to Obama, Pelosi and Reid makes a lot of people pragmatically more open to a coalition from the standpoint of being a long-term majority party.” Many of the candidates are trying to align themselves with the Tea Partiers, insisting that the racial dynamics of that movement have been overblown. Videos taken at some Tea Party rallies show some participants holding up signs with racially inflammatory language. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 25 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters think that the Obama administration favors blacks over whites, compared with 11 percent of the general public. The black candidates interviewed overwhelmingly called the racist narrative a news media fiction. “I have been to these rallies, and there are hot dogs and banjos,” said Mr. West, the candidate in Florida, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army who served in Afghanistan. “There is no violence or racism there.” There is also some evidence that black voters rally around specific conservative causes. A case in point was a 2008 ballot initiative in California outlawing same-sex marriage that passed in large part because of support from black voters in Southern California. Still, black Republicans face a double hurdle: black Democrats who are disinclined to back them in a general election, and incongruity with white Republicans, who sometimes do not welcome the blacks whom party officials claim to covet as new members. This spring, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia was roundly attacked for not mentioning slavery in his Confederate History Month proclamation, which he later said was a “major omission.” Black candidates said these types of gaffes posed problems in drawing African-Americans to their party, but also underscored their need to be there. “I think what the governor failed to do was to recognize the pain and the emotion that was really sparked by the institution of slavery,” said Mr. Frazier of Colorado. “As a Republican, I think I have a responsibility to continue to work within my party to avoid those types of barriers. The key for the Republican Party is to engage every community on the issues they care about and not act as if they don’t exist.” Judge Says No to Google’s Dream of Becoming the Biggest Bookstore in the World * 3/22/11 at 6:30 PM * 1Comment Judge Says No to Google’s Dream of Becoming the Biggest Bookstore in the World Photo: iStockPhoto A federal judge in New York City rejected a settlement today that would have allowed Google to scan millions of books and sell them online. The proposed settlement was the result of a class-action lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers back in 2005 for books that were out of print but still in copyright. Publishers and authors had agreed to a $125 million settlement to establish a Book Rights Registry in order to get paid when the titles are viewed online. In exchange, Google could keep scanning books and amass the world's biggest online repository. Or as the United States register of copyrights put it, it would give Google "a license to infringe first and ask questions later." In his ruling today, Judge Danny Chin said: "While the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many," Google's current pact would "simply go too far." For one, it wouldn't be just a library where users are free to borrow. Google has been trying to spin its database as providing easier access to hard-to-find titles and increasing the world's knowledge. But that access can sometimes come at a price for consumers and rivals. Indeed, as part of the settlement, Google would have the right to sell subscriptions to an online database and hock online access to individual books. Chin said the deal would "give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission." In any earlier concession to antitrust worries, Google said it would allow rivals like Amazon to sell online copies of out-of-print books. However, Kindle, the e-reader for Google's biggest competition, isn't compatible with Google's library. But the Google Internet Domination Tour can't be ground to a halt by just one ruling. Judge Chin suggested a simple amendment that would change his mind: Rather than have copyright owners "opt out" of the class-action settlement, allow them to "opt in." Larry Page has a decision to make: follow Chin's orders and open Google up to more lawsuits? Or for once in Google's life give up on trying to get a stranglehold on an industry and just scan books when it gets permission. Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland's unclaimed income from hospital ‘consulting’ gig lined his pockets: prosecutors His lawyers said the job was no sham, but prosecutors hope incriminating emails and testimony of a dozen witnesses proves otherwise BY Robert Gearty NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Originally Published: Saturday, November 5 2011, 11:53 PM Updated: Saturday, November 5 2011, 11:53 PM Assemblyman William Boyland (r) and his father William Boyland Sr, arriving at Manhattan Federal Court where they are on trial on bribery charges. Jesse Ward/Jesse A. Ward for News Assemblyman William Boyland (r) and his father William Boyland Sr, arriving at Manhattan Federal Court where they are on trial on bribery charges. The head of the Legislative Ethics Commission approached Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. with a question two years ago. Boyland had reported on disclosure forms that he was a consultant for Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn — but failed to mention income, as he was required to do. When Lisa Reid, on the floor of the New York Assembly, asked him how much he made, he replied, “Not enough.” This uniquely Albany moment emerged last week during Boyland’s corruption trial in Manhattan Federal Court, a lightning-quick case that will likely go to jury by Tuesday. Boyland is just one of a gaggle of Albany politicians hit with corruption charges in the last few years. State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) and ex-Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) face upcoming trials. Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Queens) and the late Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Queens) pleaded guilty to multiple felonies. Each of these veteran pols was charged with selling their office through a variety of schemes. In court last week, prosecutors said Boyland’s method of lining his pockets was through the “consultant” gig at Brookdale. Lawyers for Boyland told the jury the consulting job was not a sham, but with incriminating emails, phone messages and testimony of a dozen witnesses, prosecutors dubbed it a cover for bribery. Boyland’s relationship with Brookdale dates back years and extends to Boyland relatives who are also Ocean Hill politicians. Boyland’s uncle, Thomas, who has a street and school named after him, was the assemblyman from 1977 to 1982. Boyland’s father, William Sr., succeeded Thomas and served until 2003. Boyland Jr. won the seat next and has held it for five terms. His sister, Tracy, was a member of the City Council from 1997 to 2001. Before he was elected to office, Boyland was a “marketing associate” at Brookdale. His father, William Sr., worked for the hospital after he retired from the Assembly. Tracy Boyland got a job with a Brookdale entity after she left the City Council, while Boyland’s mother, Ruby, was a supervisor at Jamaica Hospital. Brookdale and Jamaica are part of the same health network, MediSys. Witnesses at trial described Boyland as less than a model marketing associate who frequently failed to show up for work or swipe in when he did. Prosecutors William Harrington and Glen McGorty said that after Boyland was elected to the Assembly, he kept his Brookdale job, but repeatedly complained to MediSys CEO David Rosen about having to swipe in. B ROBERT GEARTY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS THE HEAD of the Legislative Ethics Commission approached Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. with a question two years ago. Boyland had reported on disclosure forms that he was a consultant for Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn — but failed to mention income, as he was required to do. When Lisa Reid, on the floor of the New York Assembly, asked him how much he made, he replied, “Not enough.” This uniquely Albany moment emerged last week during Boyland’s corruption trial in Manhattan Federal Court, a lightning-quick case that will likely go to jury by Tuesday. Boyland is just one of a gaggle of Albany politicians hit with corruption charges in the last few years. State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) and ex-Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) face upcoming trials. Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Queens) and the late Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Queens) pleaded guilty to multiple felonies. Each of these veteran pols was charged with selling their office through a variety of schemes. In court last week, prosecutors said Boyland’s method of lining his pockets was through the “consultant” gig at Brookdale. Lawyers for Boyland told the jury the consulting job was not a sham, but with incriminating emails, phone messages and testimony of a dozen witnesses, prosecutors dubbed it a cover for bribery. Boyland’s relationship with Brookdale dates back years and extends to Boyland relatives who are also Ocean Hill politicians. Boyland’s uncle, Thomas, who has a street and school named after him, was the assemblyman from 1977 to 1982. Boyland’s father, William Sr., succeeded Thomas and served until 2003. Boyland Jr. won the seat next and has held it for five terms. His sister, Tracy, was a member of the City Council from 1997 to 2001. Before he was elected to office, Boyland was a “marketing associate” at Brookdale. His father, William Sr., worked for the hospital after he retired from the Assembly. Tracy Boyland got a job with a Brookdale entity after she left the City Council, while Boyland’s mother, Ruby, was a supervisor at Jamaica Hospital. Brookdale and Jamaica are part of the same health network, MediSys. Witnesses at trial described Boyland as less than a model marketing associate who frequently failed to show up for work or swipe in when he did. Prosecutors William Harrington and Glen McGorty said that after Boyland was elected to the Assembly, he kept his Brookdale job, but repeatedly complained to MediSys CEO David Rosen about having to swipe in. So the news has arrived from the heavenly land of paradise of Facebook Green. High Tech and Silicon Valley have walked the halls of Congress and have parted the aisle, both left and right and soon the path to the chosen land will be laid clear for a whole new generation of deserving tribes. Immigration law will be turned upside down and computer engineers will be allowed to swarm here from around the world. Today, April 12th, 2013, the Washington Post is announcing The best-known names in technology, including Microsoft, Google and Intel, are poised to be winners in the latest round of bipartisan immigration talks as a group of senators prepare to unveil a bill next week. This hasn't been easy to accomplish. Silicon Valley has been begging for years to lift restrictions on importing brain power from overseas, especially India and China, to fill what they perceive as critical gap in needed engineering muscle for the future of American Industry. Along the way, Mark Zuckerberg got so excited about sinking his teeth into the foreign labor market pie that forgot to tell Mark Andersen and Bill Gates that they had already signed on to the political effort. According to Reid J. Epstein on Politico (4/4/13), Facebook's boy wonder passed the entire project to his college roommate who screwed the whole thing up: That plan, sent to board members and staff, was written by Joe Green — one of Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommates and the man the young billionaire tapped to lead his group. But before the group’s unveiling, Green has apologized for the plan’s phrasing and several claims which he now says aren’t right.... [For one thing] Gates and Andreessen, however, are not yet signed on to the Zuckerberg group, according to a source familiar with its operation. The group will also not be operating under the name “Human Capital,” as Green advertised in the prospectus. And they’re now denying that the high-tech executives involved will use their companies to promote their message, which could have run them into trouble with broadcasting and campaign finance laws. Problems aside, the press seems to think that Congress is already signed up to unlimited importation of foreign educated help. Forget picking cantaloupe, it is the electrical engineers who are to get the free pass. And while we are reviewing this effort, it seems that North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il has released Secret Joker Laughing Gas across the Facebook Green, if not across the consciousness of then entirely of Western Civilization. As sure as the Young Jong Il will prepare his rockets!, the Young Zuckerman has declared: 1: We control massive distribution channels, both as companies and individuals. We saw the tip of the iceberg with SOPA/PIPA. 2: “Our voice carries a lot of weight because we are broadly popular with Americans. 3. We have individuals with a lot of money. If deployed properly this can have huge influence in the current campaign finance environment.” The news would be entertaining if it wasn't so scarey and depressing. So what's the problem? Aside from deceitful practice of tacking their lobbying effort onto the legitimate discussions over illegal immigration, and despite that they color this request for corporate pork as a human rights issue, going as far as invoking the Statue of Liberty and Superman, there is yet the real policy problem which the nation still needs to tackle, that is affordable higher education. Over the last 30 years these captains of industry have spent their long nights with foreign engineering students from the highest levels of third world aristocracy the world over. They have seen first hand the value that our great schools, like Harvard, MIT and Stamford have afforded these 'immigrants' from India, Bangladesh, the Persian Gulf, Russia and China. Jong Zuckerberg has seen the quality of the education that has been dispensed to our foreign students. To lose these students, upon their graduation from MIT, is a waste. The Zuckerman's of the world want to keep them. If we don't have the talent here, we can just import it. And that is also the problem. That is the policy problem. Why invest in the education of a kid out of Wingate HS in Brooklyn when you can just import talent from overseas that was educated here with foreign money. Zuckerman can go fuck himself. How is that for a Young Jong Il'ism... Its not like we don't have talent here. Its that we have been pulling the educational opportunity out from under out Urban lower classes for DECADES. Even the middle class suburbanites can't afford to send their children to graduate schools anymore. Instead, the schools support themselves themselves on a feast of foreign students. The NYU's of the world, have been aware of cash paying foreign students for decades and using them to prop up university graduate schools since the mid-1970's. And now, low and behold, we have an inexcusable education gap, while spoiled brats like Gates and Zuckerman will now part the red sea to get their hands of the educated minds these schools have been pushing out the door. We don't have an immigration problem, Jong Zuckerman problem. We have an education policy problem, one that consigns our own youth to poverty and suffering. That is the problem. On April 11th, 2013, David Brooks of the New York Times nicely outlines just how severely radical our domesticated priorities have been. He points out in his op-ed piece that: We’re living in a country where 53 percent of children born to women under 30 are born out of wedlock, according to government data. Millions of people, especially men, are dropping out of the labor force. Nearly half the students who begin college are unable to graduate within six years. The social fabric for people without college degrees is in shambles.... The president is increasing total revenues to a historically high 20 percent of G.D.P. by 2023. Federal spending would remain at a way-above-average 22 percent of G.D.P. But Washington still can’t seem to devote enough money to address the challenges faced by the less-educated and ease the segmentation of America. That’s true even after you account for the domestic programs that are outside the discretionary budget category and have their own funding stream, like the new early childhood initiative. Now, in the US the states are the primary providers of educational funding, and the states have passed much of that effort to local governments who depend on property taxes to support their schools. On the college level, states established universities and help fund students. Higher education also get Federal support from a multitude of programs including direct student grants, program grands, research grants and crippling student loans. The results stand on their own. Not only have we nearly run our lower and working class Americans out of the educational system, but even in those professions where we still graduate students, such as in Medicine and Law, the loan burden of these students is so high that we are pushing these students into poverty to repay loans that dwarf even what most people believe would be a large mortgage. They are paying for these loans for the rest of their lives, pushing the costs of healthcare and legal services, along with advanced education, way past the ability of middle America to pay. And now they have no one to help Facebook Green stay watered... my heart BLEEDS. Let Zuckerman take facebook to India. Good riddance. And the same for Google, and Microsoft and any other silicon valley company who wants to move from Palo Alto to Calcutta. What we need is education reform. And we've needed it for 30 years. The Economist is telling us that these immigrants are starting new businesses here and hiring locals. They argue we need this law. The give fancy charts on immigrants and business. And then they forget to tell you that they have defined immigrants differently than the immigration law is addressing, or what Zuckerman is proposing. There is nothing deceitful from the Economist. Here is something for the Economist editors to consider. All the damn tech jobs in the world haven't helped US citizens stuck in urban isolation to break out and join the high tech party at all. The families dependent on public school education still suffer from lack of education, lack of opportunity, and certainly can not be the high tech entrepreneurs of the future. They will have to keep coming from India. AND YOU KNOW these people who have been left out: The Haitian immigrant who fled to save their lives from political repression, the Cuban immigrants who fled Castro and settled here, the children of Irish migrants from 2 generations ago, the children of Holocaust survivors, the Central Americans migrants escaping petty tyrants from banana republics, and all the other US residents who are being frozen out of the educational system. It was the higher education system in the 1920's to 1950's that acted as the engine of social and economic growth for generations of immigrants that arrived here. Today there is no graduate school for these children. They don't have the core education coming out of primary school, they struggle to catch up in undergraduate college, and they certainly don't have the money for graduate school. Hell, Hunter College of CUNY has classes with 800 students in a single biology class and then flunk out the majority of the students. Yah think we have a problem here? Yes, I think we do. Maybe one should read what has been commonly known as “The Classes are too big” report 1 Written by Joe Cusoe at Marymount College, to sum up it says, “large classes for poor students sucks”: Placing college neophytes in large, lecture-laden classes that are conducive to passive spectating may initiate maladaptive mental habits or predispositions to learning that linger beyond the first year of college year. In his book, Rejuvenating Introductory Courses, Kenneth Spear artfully expresses the potentially dangerous consequence of subjecting new students to large lecture classes: “In these normative experiences, [students] learn what it is to be a student, what is required to get by. If students are taught to be passive seekers and transcribers of information, that is what they become. Further, they set their sights accordingly in subsequent courses, often actively resisting our attempts in upper-division courses to get them to go beyond the information we give them” (1984, pp. 6-7) (1) Here is a deal for Zuckerman and his merry band of privileged upper middle class children. For every foreign Computer Engineer you bring into the US, you give me 20 million dollars to spend on the school programs of MY choice. Otherwise, to hell with your free lunch. Pony up and pay the education bill for our families so we can also produce nice educated Comp Sci graduates who can make facebook while lounging around and eating Doritos in the Harvard Dorms. ~~~ 1 http://steenbock.library.wisc.edu/instruct/class_support/imd/Week%2013%20Cuseo.pdf. So the news has arrived from the heavenly land of the paradise of Facebook Green. High Tech and Silicon Valley have walked the halls of Congress and have parted the aisle, both left and right and soon the path to the chosen land will be laid clear for a whole new generation of deserving tribes. Immigration law will be turned upside down and computer engineers will be allowed to swarm here from around the world. Today, April 12th, 2013, the Washington Post is announcing The best-known names in technology, including Microsoft, Google and Intel, are poised to be winners in the latest round of bipartisan immigration talks as a group of senators prepare to unveil a bill next week. This hasn't been easy to accomplish. Silicon Valley has been begging for years to lift restrictions on importing brain power from overseas, especially India and China, to fill what they perceive as critical gap in needed engineering muscle for the future of American Industry. Along the way, Mark Zuckerberg got so excited about sinking his teeth into the foreign labor market pie that forgot to tell Mark Andersen and Bill Gates that they had already signed on to the political effort. According to Reid J. Epstein on Politico (4/4/13), Facebook's boy wonder passed the entire project to his college roommate who screwed the whole thing up: That plan, sent to board members and staff, was written by Joe Green — one of Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommates and the man the young billionaire tapped to lead his group. But before the group’s unveiling, Green has apologized for the plan’s phrasing and several claims which he now says aren’t right.... [For one thing] Gates and Andreessen, however, are not yet signed on to the Zuckerberg group, according to a source familiar with its operation. The group will also not be operating under the name “Human Capital,” as Green advertised in the prospectus. And they’re now denying that the high-tech executives involved will use their companies to promote their message, which could have run them into trouble with broadcasting and campaign finance laws. Problems aside, the press seems to think that Congress is already signed up to unlimited importation of foreign educated help. Forget picking cantaloupe, it is the electrical engineers who are to get the free pass. And while we are reviewing this effort, it seems that North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il has released Secret Joker Laughing Gas across the Facebook Green, if not across the consciousness of then entirely of Western Civilization. As sure as the Young Jong Il will prepare his rockets!, the Young Zuckerman has declared: “1: We control massive distribution channels, both as companies and individuals. We saw the tip of the iceberg with SOPA/PIPA. “2: “Our voice carries a lot of weight because we are broadly popular with Americans. “3. We have individuals with a lot of money. If deployed properly this can have huge influence in the current campaign finance environment.” The news would be entertaining if it wasn't so scarey and depressing. So what's the problem? Aside from deceitful practice of tacking their lobbying effort onto the legitimate discussions over illegal immigration, and despite that they color this request for corporate pork as a human rights issue, going as far as invoking the Statue of Liberty and Superman, there is yet the real policy problem which the nation still needs to tackle, that is affordable higher education. Over the last 30 years these captains of industry have spent their long nights with foreign engineering students from the highest levels of third world aristocracy the world over. They have seen first hand the value that our great schools, like Harvard, MIT and Stamford have afforded these 'immigrants' from India, Bangladesh, the Persian Gulf, Russia and China. Jong Zuckerberg has seen the quality of the education that has been dispensed to our foreign students. To lose these students, upon their graduation from MIT, is a waste. The Zuckerman's of the world want to keep them. If we don't have the talent here, we can just import it. And that is also the problem. That is the policy problem. Why invest in the education of a kid out of Wingate HS in Brooklyn when you can just import talent from overseas that was educated here with foreign money. Zuckerman can go fuck himself. How is that for a Young Jong Il'ism... Its not like we don't have talent here. Its that we have been pulling the educational opportunity out from under out Urban lower classes for DECADES. Even the middle class suburbanites can't afford to send their children to graduate schools anymore. Instead, the schools support themselves themselves on a feast of foreign students. The NYU's of the world, have been aware of cash paying foreign students for decades and using them to prop up university graduate schools since the mid-1970's. And now, low and behold, we have an inexcusable education gap, while spoiled brats like Gates and Zuckerman will now part the red sea to get their hands of the educated minds these schools have been pushing out the door. We don't have an immigration problem, Jong Zuckerman problem. We have an education policy problem, one that consigns our own youth to poverty and suffering. That is the problem. On April 11th, 2013, David Brooks of the New York Times nicely outlines just how severely radical our domesticated priorities have been. He points out in his op-ed piece that: We’re living in a country where 53 percent of children born to women under 30 are born out of wedlock, according to government data. Millions of people, especially men, are dropping out of the labor force. Nearly half the students who begin college are unable to graduate within six years. The social fabric for people without college degrees is in shambles.... The president is increasing total revenues to a historically high 20 percent of G.D.P. by 2023. Federal spending would remain at a way-above-average 22 percent of G.D.P. But Washington still can’t seem to devote enough money to address the challenges faced by the less-educated and ease the segmentation of America. That’s true even after you account for the domestic programs that are outside the discretionary budget category and have their own funding stream, like the new early childhood initiative. Now, in the US the states are the primary providers of educational funding, and the states have passed much of that effort to local governments who depend on property taxes to support their schools. On the college level, states established universities and help fund students. Higher education also get Federal support from a multitude of programs including direct student grants, program grands, research grants and crippling student loans. The results stand on their own. Not only have we nearly run our lower and working class Americans out of the educational system, but even in those professions where we still graduate students, such as in Medicine and Law, the loan burden of these students is so high that we are pushing these students into poverty to repay loans that dwarf even what most people believe would be a large mortgage. They are paying for these loans for the rest of their lives, pushing the costs of healthcare and legal services, along with advanced education, way past the ability of middle America to pay. And now they have no one to help Facebook Green stay watered... my heart BLEEDS. Let Zuckerman take facebook to India. Good riddance. And the same for Google, and Microsoft and any other silicon valley company who wants to move from Palo Alto to Calcutta. What we need is education reform. And we've needed it for 30 years. The Economist is telling us that these immigrants are starting new businesses here and hiring locals. They argue we need this law. The give fancy charts on immigrants and business. And then they forget to tell you that they have defined immigrants differently than the immigration law is addressing, or what Zuckerman is proposing. There is nothing deceitful from the Economist. Here is something for the Economist editors to consider. All the damn tech jobs in the world haven't helped US citizens stuck in urban isolation to break out and join the high tech party at all. The families dependent on public school education still suffer from lack of education, lack of opportunity, and certainly can not be the high tech entrepreneurs of the future. They will have to keep coming from India. AND YOU KNOW these people who have been left out: The Haitian immigrant who fled to save their lives from political repression, the Cuban immigrants who fled Castro and settled here, the children of Irish migrants from 2 generations ago, the children of Holocaust survivors, the Central Americans migrants escaping petty tyrants from banana republics, and all the other US residents who are being frozen out of the educational system. It was the higher education system in the 1920's to 1950's that acted as the engine of social and economic growth for generations of immigrants that arrived here. Today there is no graduate school for these children. They don't have the core education coming out of primary school, they struggle to catch up in undergraduate college, and they certainly don't have the money for graduate school. Hell, Hunter College of CUNY has classes with 800 students in a single biology class and then flunk out the majority of the students. Yah think we have a problem here? Yes, I think we do. Maybe one should read what has been commonly known as “The Classes are too big” report 1 Written by Joe Cusoe at Marymount College, to sum up it says, “large classes for poor students sucks”: Placing college neophytes in large, lecture-laden classes that are conducive to passive spectating may initiate maladaptive mental habits or predispositions to learning that linger beyond the first year of college year. In his book, Rejuvenating Introductory Courses, Kenneth Spear artfully expresses the potentially dangerous consequence of subjecting new students to large lecture classes: “In these normative experiences, [students] learn what it is to be a student, what is required to get by. If students are taught to be passive seekers and transcribers of information, that is what they become. Further, they set their sights accordingly in subsequent courses, often actively resisting our attempts in upper-division courses to get them to go beyond the information we give them” (1984, pp. 6-7) Here is a deal for Zuckerman and his merry band of privileged upper middle class children. For every foreign Computer Engineer you bring into the US, you give me 20 million dollars to spend on the school programs of MY choice. Otherwise, to hell with your free lunch. Pony up and pay the education bill for our families so we can also produce nice educated Comp Sci graduates who can make facebook while lounging around and eating Doritos in the Harvard Dorms. ntion of it occasionally surfaces in the media, but the mainstream political class never openly discuss it. What is that historic event? By the year 2050, in a mere 37 years, Britain will be a majority Muslim nation. This projection is based on reasonably good data. Between 2004 and 2008, the Muslim population of the UK grew at an annual rate of 6.7 percent, making Muslims 4 percent of the population in 2008. Extrapolating from those figures would mean that the Muslim population in 2020 would be 8 percent, 15 percent in 2030, 28 percent in 2040 and finally, in 2050, the Muslim population of the UK would exceed 50 percent of the total population. Contrast those Muslim birth rates with the non-replacement birth rates of native Europeans, the so called deathbed demography of Europe. For a society to remain the same size, the average female has to have 2.1 children (total fertility rate). For some time now, all European countries, including Britain, have been well below that rate. The exception is Muslim Albania. For native Europeans, it seems, the consumer culture has replaced having children as life’s main goal. These startling demographic facts have been available for some time (see ‘Muslim Population “Rising 10 Times Faster than Rest of Society”’, The Times, 30 January 2009. Also the work of the Oxford demographer David Coleman). But on this historic transformation of the country there is silence from the political establishment. Not everyone agrees with these demographic figures. Population projection, some say, is not an exact science. Perhaps the Muslim birth rate will drop to European levels. But this seems to be wishful thinking. For years it was believed that Muslims would enter what is known as “demographic transition”, with European Muslim birth rates falling to native European levels. But that demographic transition has not happened. In Britain, for example, the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities continue to have significantly higher birth rates than the national average, even after more than 50 years in the country. Over the short term (a few generations) demographic forecasting is as scientific as any social science can be. Britain and the rest of Europe are in native population decline and European Muslim birth rates are up. If that trend continues, then the projection of a majority Muslim population in Britain is sound. Even the highly respected economist and historian Niall Ferguson accepts the figures. Many British people find it hard to believe their country could become majority Muslim. After all, it was never what they wanted so why, in a democracy, should it be happening? But we’ve had such disbelief before. Back in the 60s and 70s, many people scoffed at the notion that London could ever be majority non-white. But today it is. The fact is that the deathbed demography of native Britons has come up against increasing Muslim birth rates and the result is a classic Malthusian geometric increase in the Muslim population. As Malthus emphasised, populations increase geometrically, not arithmetically. Given two populations, one declining one increasing, within a few generations the geometric increase of one over the other can be substantial. Why has the Muslim birth rate not fallen to native levels? Just as there may be consumerist-cultural reasons for the low birth rates of native Britons, there may be strong cultural reasons for higher Muslim birth rates. As the journalist Christopher Caldwell puts it: “Muslim culture is full of messages laying out the practical advantages of procreation. As the hadith saying has it: ‘Marry, for I will outnumber peoples by you.’” Yassir Arafat understood the political power of high birth rates. The Palestinian population increased sevenfold in one generation from 450,000 in 1967 to 3.3 million in 2002. The wombs of Palestinian women, Arafat said, were the “secret weapon” in his cause. The Israeli government is very much aware of Palestinian demographics. Population projections over the long term can be wrong. But for Britain, over the short term, whatever way you do the numbers, they all point in one direction: Britain will be a majority Muslim state by the year 2050. The political and social consequences of all this will be significant. Britain’s traditional foreign policy, particularly regarding the US and Israel, would very likely change. In fact the US and Israel are already anticipating the consequences of a majority Muslim Western Europe. Britain’s social landscape would also be changed. The Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, would very likely be heard throughout most of Britain. The traditional iconic sights and sounds of the country would also change from church bell-towers to minarets. Very likely all of this would happen gradually but there can be little doubt that it will happen, and it would be perfectly democratic. Given that such a historic change is taking place, the silence of the political class is curious, to say the least. Britain, until the 1950s, could trace its ethnic and cultural ancestry back thousands of years. In 1903, in Cheddar Gorge Somerset, the remains of a pre-historic man were found. Known as Cheddar Man, DNA tests on this almost 9000 years old skeleton showed that he has living descendents today, still in Somerset. In fact, genetic studies show that the populations of the British Isles (and Western Europe) have been stable for millennia, giving the lie to the oft quoted liberal comment that “Britain has always been a country of immigrants.” That’s false. Until the mass immigration of the 1950s, Britain was ethnically homogeneous. (See Bryan Sykes’s Blood of the Isles.) The long stretch of Britain’s exclusively European identity is now coming to an end, yet the political class refuse publicly to discuss such a culturally transforming event. Why the silence from the politicians? Are they not proud of their achievement? The answer is that the demographic projections of a majority Muslim Britain show the British political class to have been catastrophically wrong on multiculturalism and immigration, and they are genuinely afraid to admit it. The British political establishment cannot give the full truth about immigration. The former Conservative MP George Walden, considering the fears of his fellow MPs in discussing particularly Muslim immigration, wrote: “I’d be so alarmed by the situation I’d do everything possible to suggest it was under control. It’s up to politicians to play mood music in a crisis, and up to the people to understand that there’s little else governments can do. The last thing they can say is that we face a threat to which we can see no end because it’s based on a clash of cultures. On the IRA we told the truth; on the Islamic problem, we lie.” (Walden, Time to Emigrate? p.120) Back in the 60s and 70s, the British political establishment united in condemning Enoch Powell, not just as a racist but as being factually incorrect in his demographic predictions. Since then, the subject of immigration has split British politics between the truth-denying, but morally superior, political mainstream and the truth-telling legacy of the bogeyman Enoch Powell. For good or bad, the history of the last 40 years has vindicated Powell on many issues and shown the political establishment to have been wrong. Some major figures on the liberal-left now acknowledge this fact. David Goodhart, the founder of Prospect magazine, in his new book The British Dream, argues convincingly that he and others on the liberal-left got it wrong on immigration. But they also got it wrong on democracy. The projection of a Muslim majority by the year 2050, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of the British people have consistently opposed large-scale immigration, post-war British politics must represent the greatest ever failure in democracy. If ever the “Iron Law of Oligarchy” were proved right, then it is post-war British politics that has done it. Vincent Cooper is a freelance writer with a particular interest in philosophy, mathematics, and economics Read more on: Britain as a Muslim majority country, islam in Britain, niall ferguson, Vincent Cooper, Christopher Caldwell, and Enoch Powell Social Clubs, Long Gone, Left Their Meeting Places Behind By CHRISTOPHER GRAY THE five-borough consolidation of 1898 was a bitter pill for many in Brooklyn, who correctly foresaw the eclipse of their influential city by the powerhouse of Manhattan. Few things document that change as well as the collapsed network of men’s social clubs in Brooklyn, at least four of whose clubhouses survive. Three of the four were built within two years of one another. So competitive were the Brooklyn clubs that the Carlton (a k a Carleton) put up a headquarters in 1890 at Sixth and St. Marks Avenues in Park Slope simply because of rumors that another club was organizing to build nearby. The Carlton had been dry, but after an 1889 meeting at which the membership voted, 38 to 11, to serve beer and wine, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that it had “stepped to the front rank of Brooklyn clubs at a strike.” This momentously fermentative change was thus in effect for the opening of the clubhouse, attended by 1,500 guests, including the mayors of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The club served a 10-course dinner, and members lent paintings by Jervis McIntee, George Inness and Eastman Johnson for the event. The Carlton was apparently designed by Mercein Thomas, and it is a mild, even modest, essay that could just as easily be a small apartment house, which indeed it has become. Not so the Union League Club. Founded in the 1860s to support the Union cause, it built an elaborate clubhouse in Crown Heights at Dean Street and Bedford Avenue in 1890. The architect, Peter Lauritzen, chose the Romanesque style, in dark brownstone and a peculiarly tepid light-brown brick that gives it a provincial air. The two facades hinge on an octagonal corner tower that culminated in a lookout within an eight-sided belfry, the flanking mansard roof topped with eagles and lions. At the entrance, the busts of Lincoln and Grant are still crisp, although the roof has been stripped of its majesty, like a tree that has lost its leaves in a hurricane. Hundreds waited at the club for results of the presidential election of 1900, and pandemonium followed the announcement that the Republican McKinley-Roosevelt ticket had won. “Bryan shouters seemed to be in the extreme minority,” The Eagle reported. Another group of Republicans opened the Lincoln Club, also in 1890, on Putnam Avenue, between Irving Place and Classon Avenue, in Clinton Hill. Although somewhat fallen, this is one of the great club buildings of New York, a wild, chunky Queen Anne fantasy of turrets, buttresses, monograms and custom-shaped brick. The architect was the Mexican-born, Paris-trained Rudolph Daus, and his masonry is something to marvel at. Over the main-floor windows run half-round arches of delicious ribbon-pattern terra cotta. Above the fourth-floor windows on the left are perhaps the largest splayed arches in New York, at least five feet high. And the terra-cotta monogram at the top, “LC,” is the size of a Mini Cooper. There was plenty of nuance in the temperance issue — the Lincoln served ale, but not wine. The Eagle reported that the billiard room was the largest at any club in Brooklyn, nine tables in all, the interior in quartered oak. Two ensembles played at the opening night, Cappa’s Seventh Regiment Band and Hazay Natzy’s Hungarian Band. The final work in this quartet stands at Clinton and Pierrepont Streets, in Brooklyn Heights, built in 1906 as the Crescent Athletic Club. With 12 stories, the Crescent was larger than most clubs in Manhattan, with a swimming pool, a rifle range and a 3,000-square-foot wine cellar. In 1918 the club opened up the range to nonmembers to improve military preparedness. “American youth takes naturally to shooting,” said Montaigu Sterling, the member in charge. But Brooklyn’s clubdom was peaking just as the Crescent opened its magnificent high-rise palazzo. The Carlton Club left its building in 1907, and the Union League lost its house a few years later. The Lincoln Club dissolved in 1931, and in 1939 foreclosure overtook the Crescent. It had been a brief, shining moment. The Crescent is now St. Ann’s School; the Carlton has been converted to apartments; and the Union League houses a senior center and offices. In each case, very little of the interior appears to survive. But the musty old Lincoln has the air of a place that has seen little change, even though the facade is covered in paint. It is now the headquarters of a fraternal group, the Independent United Order of Mechanics, Friendly Society, Western Hemisphere. Multiple e-mail and telephone inquiries beginning in June were not returned. There is no doorbell, and on two recent visits the building looked absolutely vacant, although not in any way abandoned. The architectural historian Andrew Dolkart, who examined the building in the 1980s for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, says he recalls “lots of oak,” and it seems likely that the interior is still impressive, a time capsule waiting to be pried open. Pork handouts offered to pressure council members to OK congestion plan Wednesday, April 2nd 2008, 4:00 AM Mayor Bloomberg put on pressure to get green light on plan. Rosier/News Mayor Bloomberg put on pressure to get green light on plan. No one could recall such a naked combination of arm-twisting and pork-barrel handouts to pressure City Council members to approve the huge tax increase known as congestion pricing. "City Hall offered more in goodies this week to get this tax passed than the federal government is giving us to do it," said Brooklyn Councilman Lewis Fidler, a leading opponent of the plan that passed by a 30-to-20 vote. Harlem Councilwoman Inez Dickens, for instance, got a last-minute promise from City Hall for major changes she'd been seeking to the huge 125th St. redevelopment plan. Her colleague, Sara Gonzalez, got a promise of a new ferry line for her district in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Councilman Domenic Recchia of Gravesend was offered a new ferry line for his constituents from Coney Island to Manhattan. Up in the Bronx, a major retail redevelopment project at the Kingsbridge Armory that had been stalled for a year suddenly moved forward in the past few weeks. Joel Rivera, the Council majority leader from the Bronx, had opposed the mayor's plan until Monday. Rivera suddenly switched his position the day of the vote. He joined six other members of the Bronx delegation to deliver near-unanimous support for the mayor's $8-a-day tax on cars coming into the central business district on weekdays. On Staten Island, Councilman Michael McMahon, who claimed he was leaning against congestion pricing, stunned most insiders by flipping at the last moment. "You wouldn't believe the pressure," said one supporter of congestion pricing who asked not to be identified. "Some of my colleagues in Council suddenly got religion on Monday after opposing this thing for weeks." Others talked of the mayor suggesting in private meetings that he might hold fund-raisers for certain term-limited Council members running for new posts next year. Everyone, of course, denies any direct relation between their vote and the specific "enhancements" for their districts, or any offers of political support. "The 125th St. negotiations with the local members of the Council are a normal part of the ULURP [uniform land use review process] process," Bloomberg spokesman John Gallagher said. As for the new ferry routes, Gallagher said the mayor and Council Speaker Christine Quinn are "working with the Council on a five-borough ferry plan." Throughout all of this frenzied lobbying the past few months for congestion pricing, Quinn has acted like a slavish deputy sheriff to the mayor. In case you think this was all part of the give-and-take of the democratic process, consider the following: A few months ago, the mayor's plan was so unpopular it looked unlikely to even be voted out of committee. Five of the seven committee members, including Rivera and McMahon, were poised to vote against it. So what did Quinn do? She slipped two supporters of congestion pricing onto the committee. Now the fight moves to Albany, where the Senate and the new governor just rejected Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's commendable plan to tax millionaires. Our billionaire mayor who keeps creating congestion with huge new skyscraper condos for the affluent will now demand that Albany force the middle class to pay the freight for reducing congestion. jgonzalez@nydailynews.com November 4, 2001 CITY PEOPLE A Patch of Dirt With a Haunting Past By ERIKA KINETZ NICHOLAS EVANS-CATO has been painting pictures of the same triangle of dirt for five years. Today the object of his affection an awkward lot at Hudson Avenue and Front Street in the Vinegar Hill section of Brooklyn is filled with sickly grass, robust weeds, automobiles, old socks and a deflated Wilson football. But 200 years ago, historians believe, it was filled with the bones of patriots. Mr. Evans-Cato, 28, a Brooklyn artist whose work has been shown at the New- York Historical Society and the Pratt Institute, among other places, painted the triangle eight times before he discovered its macabre history. He is now working on his 11th painting. "I don't really believe in ghosts," Mr. Evans-Cato said, "but there was a feeling I had at that corner." The triangle lies just up the hill from a part of New York Harbor called Wallabout Bay. During the Revolution, some 11,500 American troops died in British prison ships anchored in that bay, compared with a total of only 6,800 or so who died in combat in the entire war. Each morning, prisoners collected the dead from the ships, where diseases like yellow fever and smallpox were rampant, and buried them in shallow graves along the shore. But the earth soon gave back the remains. In 1785 Joseph P. Cook, a congressman, wrote of the horror of "beholding a large number of human bones, some fragments of flesh not quite consumed, with many pieces of old blankets, lying upon the shore." He appealed to Congress and got the corpses buried, but bodies kept appearing. Then, in 1808, the Tammany Society, a political group that grew into Tammany Hall, built a temporary monument and crypt adjacent to the Navy Yard. According to an 1867 book, "A History of the City of Brooklyn," by Henry J. Stiles, the interment celebration was a splendid pageant that drew 30,000 spectators. But the groundswell of patriotism soon subsided. No money was raised for a permanent memorial, and by the 1830's, the small wooden hut, which contained 13 coffins of bones for each of the original colonies, had fallen into disrepair. In 1873, the remains were moved to Fort Greene Park, and in 1908, the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, an imposing Doric column designed by McKim, Mead & White, was built. The bones have been there ever since. As always, delineating old history in feet and inches can be a tricky process. So far, the sole evidence of the location of the original wooden martyrs' monument is an 1828 property survey. That document labels as "Monument" the precise spot Mr. Evans- Cato has been painting. "That map is pretty conclusive proof," said Robert Furman, president of Brooklyn Heritage, a nonprofit coalition of groups involved in commemorating the Revolution. But some people have called for further research, both to confirm the location and determine if any bones remain at the site, which is privately owned. "We're pretty much agreed that where that map shows is where the monument was," said Prof. H. Arthur Bankoff, chairman of the department of anthropology and archaeology at Brooklyn College. But, he added, "you would like to confirm that it's there." Last March, Brooklyn Heritage and the Brooklyn College Archaeological Research Center applied for state grants to do research at the triangle and at five other Revolutionary War sites in Brooklyn. But the Sept. 11 attacks make the grants unlikely, Mr. Furman said. But Mr. Evans-Cato's fascination with the triangle does not hinge on historical certitude. "What drew me to the corner initially was the visual interest in that bend in the street," he said. "It was the break in the city's unrelenting orthogonal grid." Mr. Evans-Cato, a Brooklyn native who lives in Fort Greene, completed his first painting of the area in 1996. Since then he has spent summer nights, wet winter afternoons and bright spring days painting roughly the same scene. "There was something about the corner that kept drawing me to it," he said. "I knew it was more than just a formal, aesthetic quality." It was not grandeur. In "Triangle," the first work he did after learning in 1999 of its significance, torn plastic hangs from barbed wire, and garbage flecks the canvas. The city is Mr. Evans-Cato's favorite model. He often paints Williamsburg and the Gowanus Canal, places with which he has childhood associations. He said he felt a similar if vaguer connection to the triangle. "I've always been interested in prisoner of war narratives," he said. "There's something that touches me very personally when I read these stories." In 1980, a drunken truck driver hit Mr. Evans-Cato and his father. His father was killed instantly. Mr. Evans-Cato spent the next decade in and out of wheelchairs, hospitals and his bed. "I've done a lot of thinking about being trapped in a place you can't do anything about," he said. His paintings of the triangle have no sign of martyrs or a mass grave. Though Mr. Evans-Cato's paintings resonate with history, they do not tell it. That's a job for plaque- makers. "The painting itself doesn't tell the story any more than the triangle itself now tells the story," he said. THE triangle is testament to a persistent American trait: forgetfulness. "In other parts of the world, even if all the bones have been moved from monument triangle to Fort Greene Park, that would be sanctified ground forever," he said. "In America, after 1873 when the bones were moved, it became real estate." Mr. Evans-Cato said he would like to see a modest monument on the site, perhaps an explanatory marker and 13 trees. "There needs to be a physical space for these emotions, for these feelings of loss," he said. In 1867, Mr. Stiles offered a similar admonition. "Oh, my countrymen!" he wrote. "These dead bodies ask no monument. Their monument arose when they fell, and as long as liberty shall have defenders, their names will be imperishable. "But, oh, my countrymen, it is we who need a monument," he wrote, "that the widows and children of the dead, and the whole country, and the shades of the departed, and all future ages, may see and know that we honor patriotism, and virtue, and liberty, and truth." No to MTA bailout The Brooklyn Paper Similar stories Letters: Tolls on bridges do job of ‘congestion pricing’ Editorial: Marty’s blind spot Editorial: The MTA’s un-fare-ness Bay Ridge: Hike in Verrazano toll bridges politics Transit: MT-Hey! Station booths will be cut big Transit: M is for mourning; R is for regret Tools Print this story digg del.icio.us Open: Email a friend Your name Your email address Recipients’ email addresses (Up to ten, separated by commas.) Thursday morning aboard the packed F train from Kensington to DUMBO. Commuters are doing what they do best — accepting their sorry fate — but the crowded conditions and constant jostling fray the collective fabric. “When I get off this train,” a woman shouts to no one in particular, “I am calling 3-1-1!” And therein lies the problem. The city’s 311 system handles many things, but it cannot help a subway rider’s plight. That’s because the state, or, more to the point, Gov. Paterson, has control over the single biggest facet of our urban life. Mac Support Store At one time, the subway system was run by the city government. But in the late 1960s, at the city’s behest, Albany placed it under the control of an authority it had set up to run the faltering Long Island Rail Road and Metro North commuter rail lines. The stated goal was to insulate the subway system from city politics — but the “cure” has been worse than the supposed disease: now the political officials who are most responsible for the MTA’s dire circumstances are not held accountable for them. Now, we are at an impasse. The MTA claims it needs a 23-percent subway and bus fare hike — plus severe service cuts and deep layoffs — to keep the system afloat. That led to the usual kabuki dance in Albany where officials floated ever-changing schemes that included payroll taxes, lesser fare hikes and tolls on the East and Harlem river bridges. This week, top officials of the Environmental Defense Fund came to our office to ask us to support those tolls as a way of making drivers pay their share to keep the transit system afloat. We agree that a regional transportation system requires contributions from all users — drivers, subway and bus riders and even pedestrians and bikers (who benefit from a good mass transit system) — but giving the MTA more money at this time is like giving a drunk another drink and the keys to the car. No new revenue streams — tolls and fees that will inevitably be raised as soon as the MTA finds intself in another “crisis” next year — should be created for the authority until it is reformed from top to bottom. A good start would be to fire the existing board, whose members rarely get out of their company cars to see how the other 90 percent lives, and replace it with one whose majority is comprised of transit-using urbanites. Ideally, these board members would be appointed by the mayor — who gets blamed for subway and bus shortcomings even though he is virtually powerless to fix them. Which is why that woman on the F train on Thursday needs to forget about calling 311 and instead call the governor and demand a transit agency that works for New York City. * OPINION * NOVEMBER 5, 2008 The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace What must our enemies be thinking? By JEFFREY SCOTT SHAPIRO Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president. [Commentary] AP According to recent Gallup polls, the president's average approval rating is below 30% -- down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right. This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, "Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust." Those bipartisan efforts have been met with crushing resistance from both political parties. The president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there. It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right. Yet it should seem obvious that many of our country's current problems either existed long before Mr. Bush ever came to office, or are beyond his control. Perhaps if Americans stopped being so divisive, and congressional leaders came together to work with the president on some of these problems, he would actually have had a fighting chance of solving them. Like the president said in his 2004 victory speech, "We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America." In Opinion Journal Today To be sure, Mr. Bush is not completely alone. His low approval ratings put him in the good company of former Democratic President Harry S. Truman, whose own approval rating sank to 22% shortly before he left office. Despite Mr. Truman's low numbers, a 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that he was ranked the seventh most popular president in history. Just as Americans have gained perspective on how challenging Truman's presidency was in the wake of World War II, our country will recognize the hardship President Bush faced these past eight years -- and how extraordinary it was that he accomplished what he did in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time. Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House. Mr. Shapiro is an investigative reporter and lawyer who previously interned with John F. Kerry's legal team during the presidential election in 2004. Mighty Democracies By GEORGE W. BUSH | May 16, 2008 The following are excerpts of remarks made by President Bush on Thursday to members of the Knesset in Jerusalem: We gather to mark a momentous occasion. Sixty years ago in Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel’s independence, founded on the “natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate.” What followed was more than the establishment of a new country. It was the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David — a homeland for the chosen people Eretz Yisrael. Eleven minutes later, on the orders of President Harry Truman, the United States was proud to be the first nation to recognize Israel’s independence. And on this landmark anniversary, America is proud to be Israel’s closest ally and best friend in the world. The alliance between our governments is unbreakable, yet the source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. It is grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul. When William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower in 1620, he quoted the words of Jeremiah: “Come let us declare in Zion the word of God.” The founders of my country saw a new promised land and bestowed upon their towns names like Bethlehem and New Canaan. And in time, many Americans became passionate advocates for a Jewish state. Centuries of suffering and sacrifice would pass before the dream was fulfilled. The Jewish people endured the agony of the pogroms, the tragedy of the Great War, and the horror of the Holocaust — what Elie Wiesel called “the kingdom of the night.” Soulless men took away lives and broke apart families. Yet they could not take away the spirit of the Jewish people, and they could not break the promise of God. When news of Israel’s freedom finally arrived, Golda Meir, a fearless woman raised in Wisconsin, could summon only tears. She later said: “For two thousand years we have waited for our deliverance. Now that it is here it is so great and wonderful that it surpasses human words.” ... I have been fortunate to see the character of Israel up close. I have touched the Western Wall, seen the sun reflected in the Sea of Galilee, I have prayed at Yad Vashem. And earlier today, I visited Masada, an inspiring monument to courage and sacrifice. At this historic site, Israeli soldiers swear an oath: “Masada shall never fall again.” Citizens of Israel: Masada shall never fall again, and America will be at your side. ... The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies. ... There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It’s natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century. Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it. Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States of America stands with you. ...The fundamental insight, that freedom yields peace, is the great lesson of the 20th century. Now our task is to apply it to the 21st. Nowhere is this work more urgent than here in the Middle East. We must stand with the reformers working to break the old patterns of tyranny and despair. We must give voice to millions of ordinary people who dream of a better life in a free society. We must confront the moral relativism that views all forms of government as equally acceptable and thereby consigns whole societies to slavery. ... That future will be a dramatic departure from the Middle East of today. ... if we and future Presidents and future Knessets maintain our resolve and have faith in our ideals, here is the Middle East that we can see: Israel will be celebrating the 120th anniversary as one of the world’s great democracies, a secure and flourishing homeland for the Jewish people. The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved — a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects human rights, and rejects terror. From Cairo to Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy and tourism and trade. Iran and Syria will be peaceful nations, with today’s oppression a distant memory and where people are free to speak their minds and develop their God-given talents. Al Qaeda and Hezbollah and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists’ vision and the injustice of their cause. Overall, the Middle East will be characterized by a new period of tolerance and integration. And this doesn’t mean that Israel and its neighbors will be best of friends. But when leaders across the region answer to their people, they will focus their energies on schools and jobs, not on rocket attacks and suicide bombings. With this change, Israel will open a new hopeful chapter in which its people can live a normal life, and the dream of Herzl and the founders of 1948 can be fully and finally realized. ... Sixty years ago, on the eve of Israel’s independence, the last British soldiers departing Jerusalem stopped at a building in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. An officer knocked on the door and met a senior rabbi. The officer presented him with a short iron bar — the key to the Zion Gate — and said it was the first time in 18 centuries that a key to the gates of Jerusalem had belonged to a Jew. His hands trembling, the rabbi offered a prayer of thanksgiving to God, “Who had granted us life and permitted us to reach this day.” Then he turned to the officer, and uttered the words Jews had awaited for so long: “I accept this key in the name of my people.” Over the past six decades, the Jewish people have established a state that would make that humble rabbi proud. You have raised a modern society in the Promised Land, a light unto the nations that preserves the legacy of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And you have built a mighty democracy that will endure forever and can always count on the United States of America to be at your side. God bless. Anouncement: Call For Papers for North American Conference of Freedom-IT The Freedom-IT is a college of profesional Free Software developers in North America who conduct a yearly retreat for people serious about Free Software Development. It focuses on top shelf advances in Free Software and computer sciences in general. Freedom IT - Call For Papers: This years 2007-08 winter conference is "Technical developement in Software Multimedia and Its Importance in Ssociety. The Meeting will be held in Lake Placid February, 2008 Submiting Papers: Papers must be relevent the folowing topics listed below. Papers must be between 750 - 1500 characters. All papers should be sent to Ellen@nylxs.com. Prefered format include open non-proprietary standards which can be edited. Plain ascii text is best, although, HTML, and OpenOffice odt and sxv formats will be accepted. List of topics: Developments of the following areas are of particular interest to the Freedom-IT conference: Free Software and audio media and delivery Free Software vidio codecs and commercial implimentations Media cryptogrophy and content controll as well as reverse engineering of existing formats Multimedia distribution on small devices and phones Streaming media for commercial and home implimentations Broadcast media formats, players and storage devices. (Tivo, Myth TV) Societial and Commercial topics of study include: The impact of GPL3 on Free Software media distribution. Benefits and perils of the proposed high definition media propietary formats such as Blue Ray. Text, print, and real world publishings. (LuLu.com) and its comerical i mplications. Papers that qualify will be sent notice. Presentation: Proper Time will be given as needed to present followed by questions. 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One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042 Privacy Statement > http://canonctd.cusa.canon.com/ctd/lu?RID=1-7W05G5&CON=1-3JJZ-60&PRO=&AID=&relayIds=T&OID=1-7SQ7P5&CID=1-7SQ7Q1&COID=1-7SQ7Q6&T=http%3a%2f%2fwww.usa.canon.com%2fcusa%2fabout_canon%2fstandard_display%2fabtcan_lgl_privacy_misc&Z=3Dc8b1b8147639485324afb9aeb4f486ca&= TN=Consumer+-+Privacy+Statement&RT=Clicked+On+URL This e-mail was sent to: spam-killer@mrbrklyn.com NY Times March 19, 2011 A Senator’s Shadow Family By MICHAEL BARBARO, ALISON LEIGH COWAN and ASHLEY PARKER EVEN in a city that celebrates unbridled ostentation, the sprawling estate at 139 Bassett Avenue in the seaside enclave of Mill Basin, Brooklyn, seems to redefine conspicuous consumption. The front yard is a gaudy stab at Versailles, with four-foot obelisks at each corner of the driveway, intricately tiled fountains and a series of steel sculptures that depict dolphins mid-dive, children at play and birds in flight. The 7,000-square-foot home, whose aesthetic is cruise-ship-meets-mob-mansion, has five terraces, a curved-glass elevator and an arcade room outfitted with gumball machines. On the second floor, there is what the residents call their “ice cream room,” furnished with an old-fashioned counter and soda fountain. Creating this eclectic palace was a huge mess. There were bitter legal disputes with contractors. Neighbors filed numerous complaints with the city’s Buildings Department questioning whether there were proper permits. At one point, a police officer moonlighting as a steeplejack fell and injured his spine when the flagpole he had been hired to fix cracked. The house is owned by two never-married middle-aged brothers, Drs. Michael S. and Gerard I. Turano, gynecologists whose 39-foot yacht, Special Delivery, is often docked out back. They live there with their mother, Dorothy, 73, a Brooklyn native who manages the local community board. But the person who oversaw the construction — and browbeat the contractors — is State Senator Carl Kruger, an Albany power broker and Democratic moneyman whose official residence is at his sister’s, two miles away. The tangled ties among Mr. Kruger, the doctors and their mother — long a topic of gossip and speculation in the insular neighborhood and nearby political precincts — were thrust into view this month when the senator and the older Turano brother were among eight men charged in what the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York described as “a broad-based bribery racket.” For more than 25 years, Mr. Kruger and the Turanos of Mill Basin have forged the most unconventional of domestic arrangements — at once public and opaque, widely whispered about and poorly understood. The Turanos are variously described by friends, neighbors and colleagues as the senator’s social acquaintances, lovers or surrogate relatives. In 2002, Michael Turano testified that Mr. Kruger was his “best friend.” Benjamin Brafman, Mr. Kruger’s lawyer, says the senator “often describes the Turanos as his family,” though in depositions Mr. Kruger has understated how long he has known them and how frequently he visited their home. (A process server testified that he saw Mr. Kruger at the Bassett Avenue home, on several occasions, “in his pajamas coming out of a bedroom.”) Investigators, who tapped the senator’s cellphone for months, have both muddied and clarified the situation, suggesting that Mr. Kruger, 61, had his most intimate relationship with Michael, 49, picking him up at the office and fielding phone calls from him throughout the day. “Kruger spoke with Michael Turano,” court records say, “in a manner that revealed that they relied on and supported one another.” But when asked whether Mr. Kruger was a close friend of her son, Ms. Turano, through the security intercom at her front door, said: “He was my friend. That’s why I don’t understand about this. Whatever comes out is going to be so wrong.” In the days since the criminal complaint was filed on March 10, the four central characters in this drama have declined to talk extensively to reporters. But interviews with two dozen people who know them, along with previously undisclosed court and city records, reveal a strange symbiosis. Mr. Kruger vaulted the Turanos into his spheres of power and influence, prosecutors say, landing Dorothy a plum job and, later, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into her sons’ bank accounts to finance a $200,000 Bentley and pay down a $1.2 million mortgage. The Turanos, in turn, provided the senator companionship, and prosecutors say the brothers helped conceal his growing payoffs from lobbyists and corporations. Mr. Brafman denied any wrongdoing but did not dispute the unusually close ties. “Despite the tenor of the complaint,” the lawyer said, “I think we will ultimately be able to establish beyond question that the Kruger-Turano relationship is a close family relationship, not a part of a criminal conspiracy.” Like many classic New York tales, the story of Mr. Kruger and his shadow family involves love, money, conflict and real estate. It is a story of an internecine political world of favor-trading and access-peddling. It is a story of an obscure waterfront expanse of garish mansions and decadent cars, a pocket of wealth unreachable by buses and subways and unseen by most city residents. And, now, it is a story of unwanted attention. TO hear 76-year-old Michael P. Turano tell it, Carl Kruger took his family. “Until he came into the picture,” said Mr. Turano, whose marriage to Dorothy ended in 1985, “we were a very happy family.” Michael Turano of Bensonhurst and Dorothy A. Bianchini of Flatbush met at a church social in 1956. He worked at a bakery, she at an insurance company. They both liked to dance. They lived modestly: His car was in such a sad state that he had to borrow his in-laws’ 1947 Buick to drive to Miami for their honeymoon, in 1957. Their sons, born two years apart, had little need for friends because they had each other. “They were soul mates,” their father said in an interview from his home in Florida, where he moved a decade ago. “Ninety-five percent of the time, they were together.” The brothers went to South Shore High School: Michael, class of 1979, was executive council chairman, and Gerard was president of the class of 1981. “They really were what you would call ‘Mr. South Shore,’ ” said Michael Ingram, a former English teacher at the school. “They were wonderful students; they were very, very active in school activities; they participated in everything.” “Dottie,” Mr. Ingram added, “was a supermom” — PTA president, a volunteer school aide. “She got all sorts of wonderful things done for the school.” Friends of Ms. Turano, though, detected an unfulfilled craving for a career. Her liberation came through local politics — and Mr. Kruger, a young up-and-comer who was not much to look at but possessed the currency that mattered most in that sphere: connections. He was a protégé of Anthony J. Genovesi, the gruff assemblyman who presided over the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club, which groomed generations of elected officials. By 1985, Mr. Kruger had won a coveted post as chairman of Community Board 18 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, making him much sought after for people trying to do business in the area. He had also already been indicted on state corruption charges, in 1980, but he was acquitted at trial, represented then as now by Mr. Brafman. According to her former husband, a retired accountant, Ms. Turano soon began to devote much of her free time to the Jefferson club — and to Mr. Kruger. He became a regular dinner companion, inviting the entire Turano clan out to local restaurants and regaling the family with tales of his political triumphs. Around that time, the brothers attended the City College of New York, where both were part of a prestigious program, Sophie Davis, that puts high-achieving local students on a fast track to medical school. When Michael graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1986, the father said, Mr. Kruger threw him a party that was written up in The Canarsie Courier. Mr. Kruger’s longtime lawyer, Mr. Brafman, said, “The Turano marriage was broken for more than 10 years before Mr. Kruger even met the family.” But the estranged former husband points to the senator. “I could see the writing on the wall,” he said. “He was cultivating my wife and two kids as his family-to-be.” Mr. Turano recalled telling Dorothy, “You quit the club — or I quit you.” WHEREVER Mr. Kruger popped up, Dorothy Turano seemed to follow: fund-raisers, news conferences, community meetings. In 1989, Mr. Kruger, still chairman of the community board, tapped her as its district manager, a full-time job with generous benefits that she still holds, now with a salary of about $109,000, among the highest for that job at community boards across the city. Technically, Ms. Turano was a bureaucrat, an intermediary among politicians, city agencies, civic associations and local residents. But she turned the bit part into a major role, telling board members she viewed herself as on a par with elected officials. She socialized with real estate developers, attended high-profile events like the installation of Timothy M. Dolan as archbishop in 2009 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and always managed to finagle a spot in photo-ops (often next to Mr. Kruger). “It’s amazing that a district manager influences things the way that she does,” said Charles Barron, a longtime City Council member from the area. “It’s not like somebody like her should be wielding any big-time power.” In the early 1990s, Ms. Turano helped Mr. Kruger commission a new headquarters for the board, with an arched roof and a high-end audio system; the building’s costs eventually escalated to an eye-popping $7 million in city money. In 2002, Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, presented her with a proclamation declaring Sept. 14 “Happy Birthday Dorothy Turano Day.” Constituents and politicians routinely took their complaints or proposals directly to her, bypassing board members, who increasingly deferred to Ms. Turano anyway. “She gets things done,” said Tom Hernandez, who joined the board in 2007. Mr. Kruger, meanwhile, ascended to the State Senate in 1994, selected by the Brooklyn Democratic machine as its favored candidate in a special election. Once in the Republican-controlled Senate, the loyal Democratic foot soldier turned dealmaker, offering his vote on social issues that played well with the conservative Orthodox Jews in his district and cementing his position back home with vigorous constituent service. In political circles, Ms. Turano referred to Mr. Kruger as her partner, but the pair remained something of a riddle to those around them. Ms. Turano’s ex-husband described the relationship as “motherly” rather than romantic. Frank R. Seddio, a former assemblyman and surrogate judge who was Community Board 18’s chairman and a previous district manager, said they were a couple, but then he stopped and said, “I don’t know if you can call them a couple.” Since the early 1990s, Mr. Kruger had all but lived at the Turano childhood home, a modest brick two-family on Glenwood Road in Canarsie, parking his dark Cadillac in front at all hours. Beyond the frequent visits by a state senator, neighbors found the arrangement peculiar. “I couldn’t understand it,” said Rosemarie Campanile, who lived across the street for years. “They were both prominent physicians. Why live with your mother?” The brothers run a joint practice, with offices in Manhattan at New York Downtown Hospital, and in southeast Brooklyn opposite Beth Israel Medical Center. Their business cards bear the motto “Two Doctors, One Commitment,” and say, “Practice limited to gynecology,” though they used to do obstetrics as well. Like many ob/gyns, the brothers have faced their share of malpractice lawsuits: at least seven between them in the past 14 years. Gerard, 47, has won both cases against him, and Michael prevailed at trial in a case that involved surgical intervention. But Michael also settled a case, involving a baby who ended up with brain damage and cerebral palsy, for $1.1 million in 2005; and another, regarding an abnormal Pap smear, for an undisclosed sum. He also paid a $150,000 judgment in a 2004 case in which he administered Pitocin, a labor-inducing drug, to a woman having strong contractions. It was in 1995 that the brothers bought the home on Bassett Avenue in southeast Brooklyn, for $995,000: they took out an $800,000 mortgage and embarked on a $565,000 renovation that was expected to take six months. They sold the old row house on Glenwood Road, for $240,000, to Eric Bascombe, a city bus driver. But they did not leave for two years, sparking another nasty legal fight. Mr. Bascombe had signed an agreement, which he said he had not fully understood, that allowed the Turanos — and their forever guest, Senator Kruger — to remain as renters. Livid, Mr. Bascombe eventually took to staging loud protests on the sidewalk, calling the Turanos “liars” and demanding that they vacate the property. Mr. Bascombe said the disagreement had escalated into shouting matches with Mr. Kruger, who served as the point man for the family; Mr. Bascombe reported two of the confrontations to the police. “He’s the boss; he takes care of his family,” Mr. Bascombe said. “That’s how he operates.” In 1998, the Turanos moved out and paid Mr. Bascombe $12,000. A handwritten settlement drawn up by lawyers declared that “both sides agree not to harass each other and to live in peace.” BEFORE the Turanos touched the house on Bassett, the F.B.I. had already been there. The bureau had taken a keen interest in a previous owner, Anthony Casso, a mob boss in the Luchese crime family. It was Mr. Casso who originally conceived of the giant complex, only to order the execution-style murder in 1991 of the architect who designed it, for fear that the man, Anthony Fava, could become a witness against him. F.B.I. agents stormed the house looking for evidence, punching holes in the walls as they searched for hidden bodies. When they took it over, the Turanos went far beyond patching the holes. Documents show they requested a special snow-melting device for the driveway, steam systems in the bathrooms on the second and third floors, and custom-decorated walls with Baltic birch plywood. The budget for granite alone was $50,000. Next to the house, they seized a stretch of city-owned waterfront and walled it off as a patio, with two Samurai sculptures flanking a multitiered fountain. Neighbors have complained to the city about the unusual use of city land, but Robert F. Katzberg, a lawyer for the younger Michael Turano, said the family leased the land “at fair market value.” As the costs swelled to $1.4 million, the family sued the contractor, Mike Mermelshtayn, for $8 million; he countersued, seeking $130,000 in expenses and fees. Though Mr. Kruger was not named as a party in that suit — which, like the flagpole case, has been settled — depositions highlight his outsize role. It is Mr. Kruger whom Mr. Mermelshtayn begged, in a letter, to keep the dispute out of court. “We never had a problem communicating with each other,” he wrote. “Whenever you called, I was there for you. Whenever you called, I responded.” Dr. Michael Turano testified that Mr. Kruger oversaw the work “every day.” Mr. Kruger, however, repeatedly eluded efforts to depose him in this case and in the one involving the man who fell from the flagpole. Twice, lawyers say, he canceled, claiming urgent work in Albany — once, via fax on Senate stationery 90 minutes before — only to appear on television or in the newspaper at events in Brooklyn on the same day. As the cost and scope of the renovations mounted, the Turano brothers borrowed heavily, taking out a second mortgage, of $400,000, and arranging for a home equity loan of $500,000, records show. By 2002, payments topped $8,500 a month. PROSECUTORS say Mr. Kruger had already begun to orchestrate the bribery scheme, turning the everyday routines of Albany into a business in which he took payments from lobbyists to advocate for their clients. And, the authorities charge, it became a family affair. Dr. Michael Turano, according to the criminal complaint, set up two front companies and bank accounts to stow away the sudden influx of cash — eventually, more than $1 million. One, in which Gerard was also involved, was called Bassett Brokerage, after the address of the family home. It was fitting: much of the money, said an F.B.I. agent in the complaint, was funneled to the bulging mortgages and the black Bentley Arnage parked in its garage. In a telephone conversation recorded in November, prosecutors say, Michael Turano seemed to grow anxious when a $15,000 payoff did not show up as expected. “I got the mail,” he told Mr. Kruger. “Nothing.” In another taped conversation, Mr. Kruger appears annoyed that Gerard Turano was trying to distance himself from the operation. “I made life easier for the two of you and he is going to be the beneficiary of my work,” Mr. Kruger said, according to the criminal complaint. “No, it was supposed to be that we were going to all share in the benefits of it.” From her perch at the community board, prosecutors suggest, Dorothy might have played her own small part. After rejecting plans for a retail development at a vacant site in 2004, she and the board approved a similar proposal in March 2007. Within a few weeks, a developer involved in the proposal began sending checks totaling $472,500 to Michael’s bank accounts. On Wednesday, less than a week after the criminal charges were unveiled, Dorothy Turano arrived promptly at 8 p.m. for the scheduled monthly meeting of the community board, dressed in fuchsia blazer and matching lipstick. She politely waded through the crowd of journalists waiting in vain to talk to her, then hugged board members and blew a kiss to a police officer. At her place on the dais, board members had placed a vase of daffodils and a single red rose, with a heart-shaped balloon that said, “We love you.” Upon learning of the charges, Ms. Turano’s ex-husband called her for what he said was the first time in two decades. She was at the community board office. Mr. Kruger was there. Mr. Turano told her that he needed to make sense of what had happened to his family. After all these years, he asked, “this is what you produced?” Recalling the fraught exchange, he said, “She cried quite a bit.” Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Confessore, Anemona Hartocollis, Javier C. Hernandez and William K. Rashbaum. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: March 19, 2011 A earlier version of this article contained a photo caption that misspelled the surname of the family that owns a house in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. It is Turano, not Torano. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: March 27, 2011 An article last Sunday about the ties between State Senator Carl Kruger and the Turanos, a Brooklyn family with a mansion in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, referred incorrectly to the street where the family had a home in Canarsie. It is Glenwood Road, not Avenue. Sonny street-name vote hits curb Council 'no' sparks near-revolt BY FRANK LOMBARDI Tuesday, June 5th 2007, 8:00 PM * Print * Email * Suggest a Story Self-styled "anti-white" black activist Sonny Carson died in 2002. Critics of the City Council have long considered it a rubber stamp, its members going along sheepishly with whoever is the leader of the council or whoever is the mayor. Civic activist Henry Stern, who was a Manhattan councilman before going on to serve as parks commissioner under both Mayors Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, was fond of saying the council was less than a rubber stamp - "because a rubber stamp leaves an impression." Well, the rubber stamp left a dandy impression last week with its near revolt over the effort by some council members to co-name four blocks of Gates Ave. in honor of the late Sonny Carson, a black-power activist best remembered for saying, "I am anti-white." The bid to honor Carson with a street naming was defeated last Wednesday by a vote of 25 to 15, with seven abstentions and four members absent. The voting transpired among jeers and heckling from Carson supporters seated in the balcony and personalized criticism of Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), who opposed the Carson co-naming, and Councilman Charles Barron (D-East New York), who pushed for it. Just one white member sided with the Carson side and only one nonwhite member sided with Quinn's side. Before the vote, Quinn had said, "Whatever happens, we are lucky in the City Council that we are a legislature that is not typically fraught with division. We're lucky that we're a legislature that does not typically break down on partisan lines. We're lucky we're a legislature that usually is not filled with personal attacks." Whether the divided vote causes ongoing division remains to be seen. For the record, here's how Brooklyn council members voted (all are Democrats, except where otherwise noted): * For Carson: Charles Barron, Erik Martin-Dilan, Darlene Mealy, Diana Reyna. * Against Carson: Bill de Blasio, Simcha Felder, Lewis Fidler, Vincent Gentile, Sarah Gonzalez, Michael Nelson, Domenic Recchia and David Yassky. * Abstained: Mathieu Eugene, Letitia James (D, WFP) and Kendall Stewart. January 11, 2013 The End of Courtship? By ALEX WILLIAMS MAYBE it was because they had met on OkCupid. But when the dark-eyed musician with artfully disheveled hair asked Shani Silver, a social media and blog manager in Philadelphia, out on a “date” Friday night, she was expecting at least a drink, one on one. “At 10 p.m., I hadn’t heard from him,” said Ms. Silver, 30, who wore her favorite skinny black jeans. Finally, at 10:30, he sent a text message. “Hey, I’m at Pub & Kitchen, want to meet up for a drink or whatever?” he wrote, before adding, “I’m here with a bunch of friends from college.” Turned off, she fired back a text message, politely declining. But in retrospect, she might have adjusted her expectations. “The word ‘date’ should almost be stricken from the dictionary,” Ms. Silver said. “Dating culture has evolved to a cycle of text messages, each one requiring the code-breaking skills of a cold war spy to interpret.” “It’s one step below a date, and one step above a high-five,” she added. Dinner at a romantic new bistro? Forget it. Women in their 20s these days are lucky to get a last-minute text to tag along. Raised in the age of so-called “hookup culture,” millennials — who are reaching an age where they are starting to think about settling down — are subverting the rules of courtship. Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary phone, they rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, instant messages and other “non-dates” that are leaving a generation confused about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend. “The new date is ‘hanging out,’ ” said Denise Hewett, 24, an associate television producer in Manhattan, who is currently developing a show about this frustrating new romantic landscape. As one male friend recently told her: “I don’t like to take girls out. I like to have them join in on what I’m doing — going to an event, a concert.” For evidence, look no further than “Girls,” HBO’s cultural weather vane for urban 20-somethings, where none of the main characters paired off in a manner that might count as courtship even a decade ago. In Sunday’s opener for Season 2, Hannah (Lena Dunham) and Adam (Adam Driver), who last season forged a relationship by texting each other nude photos, are shown lying in bed, debating whether being each other’s “main hang” constitutes actual dating. The actors in the show seem to fare no better in real life, judging by a monologue by Zosia Mamet (who plays Shoshanna, the show’s token virgin, since deflowered) at a benefit last fall at Joe’s Pub in the East Village. Bemoaning an anything-goes dating culture, Ms. Mamet, 24, recalled an encounter with a boyfriend whose idea of a date was lounging in a hotel room while he “Lewis and Clarked” her body, then tried to stick her father, the playwright David Mamet, with the bill, according to a Huffington Post report. Blame the much-documented rise of the “hookup culture” among young people, characterized by spontaneous, commitment-free (and often, alcohol-fueled) romantic flings. Many students today have never been on a traditional date, said Donna Freitas, who has taught religion and gender studies at Boston University and Hofstra and is the author of the forthcoming book, “The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy.” Hookups may be fine for college students, but what about after, when they start to build an adult life? The problem is that “young people today don’t know how to get out of hookup culture,” Ms. Freitas said. In interviews with students, many graduating seniors did not know the first thing about the basic mechanics of a traditional date. “They’re wondering, ‘If you like someone, how would you walk up to them? What would you say? What words would you use?’ ” Ms. Freitas said. That may explain why “dates” among 20-somethings resemble college hookups, only without the dorms. Lindsay, a 25-year-old online marketing manager in Manhattan, recalled a recent non-date that had all the elegance of a keg stand (her last name is not used here to avoid professional embarrassment). After an evening when she exchanged flirtatious glances with a bouncer at a Williamsburg nightclub, the bouncer invited her and her friends back to his apartment for whiskey and boxed macaroni and cheese. When she agreed, he gamely hoisted her over his shoulders, and, she recalled, “carried me home, my girlfriends and his bros in tow, where we danced around a tiny apartment to some MGMT and Ratatat remixes.” She spent the night at the apartment, which kicked off a cycle of weekly hookups, invariably preceded by a Thursday night text message from him saying, ‘hey babe, what are you up to this weekend?” (It petered out after four months.) Relationship experts point to technology as another factor in the upending of dating culture. Traditional courtship — picking up the telephone and asking someone on a date — required courage, strategic planning and a considerable investment of ego (by telephone, rejection stings). Not so with texting, e-mail, Twitter or other forms of “asynchronous communication,” as techies call it. In the context of dating, it removes much of the need for charm; it’s more like dropping a line in the water and hoping for a nibble. “I’ve seen men put more effort into finding a movie to watch on Netflix Instant than composing a coherent message to ask a woman out,” said Anna Goldfarb, 34, an author and blogger in Moorestown, N.J. A typical, annoying query is the last-minute: “Is anything fun going on tonight?” More annoying still are the men who simply ping, “Hey” or “ ’sup.” “What does he think I’m doing?” she said. “I’m going to my friend’s house to drink cheap white wine and watch episodes of ‘Dance Moms’ on demand.” Online dating services, which have gained mainstream acceptance, reinforce the hyper-casual approach by greatly expanding the number of potential dates. Faced with a never-ending stream of singles to choose from, many feel a sense of “FOMO” (fear of missing out), so they opt for a speed-dating approach — cycle through lots of suitors quickly. That also means that suitors need to keep dates cheap and casual. A fancy dinner? You’re lucky to get a drink. “It’s like online job applications, you can target many people simultaneously — it’s like darts on a dart board, eventually one will stick,” said Joshua Sky, 26, a branding coordinator in Manhattan, describing the attitudes of many singles in their 20s. The mass-mailer approach necessitates “cost-cutting, going to bars, meeting for coffee the first time,” he added, “because you only want to invest in a mate you’re going to get more out of.” If online dating sites have accelerated that trend, they are also taking advantage of it. New services like Grouper aren’t so much about matchmaking as they are about group dates, bringing together two sets of friends for informal drinks. The Gaggle, a dating commentary and advice site, helps young women navigate what its founders call the “post-dating” landscape, by championing “non-dates,” including the “group non-date” and the “networking non-date.” The site’s founders, Jessica Massa and Rebecca Wiegand, say that in a world where “courtship” is quickly being redefined, women must recognize a flirtatious exchange of tweets, or a lingering glance at a company softball game, as legitimate opportunities for romance, too. “Once women begin recognizing these more ambiguous settings as opportunities for romantic possibility,” Ms. Massa said, “they really start seeing their love lives as much more intriguing and vibrant than they did when they were only judging themselves by how many ‘dates’ they had lined up.” THERE’S another reason Web-enabled singles are rendering traditional dates obsolete. If the purpose of the first date was to learn about someone’s background, education, politics and cultural tastes, Google and Facebook have taken care of that. “We’re all Ph.D.’s in Internet stalking these days,” said Andrea Lavinthal, an author of the 2005 book “The Hookup Handbook.” “Online research makes the first date feel unnecessary, because it creates a false sense of intimacy. You think you know all the important stuff, when in reality, all you know is that they watch ‘Homeland.’ ” Dodgy economic prospects facing millennials also help torpedo the old, formal dating rituals. Faced with a lingering recession, a stagnant job market, and mountains of student debt, many young people — particularly victims of the “mancession” — simply cannot afford to invest a fancy dinner or show in someone they may or may not click with. Further complicating matters is the changing economic power dynamic between the genders, as reflected by a number of studies in recent years, said Hanna Rosin, author of the recent book “The End of Men.” A much-publicized study by Reach Advisors, a Boston-based market research group, found that the median income for young, single, childless women is higher than it is for men in many of the country’s biggest cities (though men still dominate the highest-income jobs, according to James Chung, the company’s president). This may be one reason it is not uncommon to walk into the hottest new West Village bistro on a Saturday night and find five smartly dressed young women dining together — the nearest man the waiter. Income equality, or superiority, for women muddles the old, male-dominated dating structure. “Maybe there’s still a sense of a man taking care of a woman, but our ideology is aligning with the reality of our finances,” Ms. Rosin said. As a man, you might “convince yourself that dating is passé, a relic of a paternalistic era, because you can’t afford to take a woman to a restaurant.” Many young men these days have no experience in formal dating and feel the need to be faintly ironic about the process — “to ‘date’ in quotation marks” — because they are “worried that they might offend women by dating in an old-fashioned way,” Ms. Rosin said. “It’s hard to read a woman exactly right these days,” she added. “You don’t know whether, say, choosing the wine without asking her opinion will meet her yearnings for old-fashioned romance or strike her as boorish and macho.” Indeed, being too formal too early can send a message that a man is ready to get serious, which few men in their 20s are ready to do, said Lex Edness, a television writer in Los Angeles. “A lot of men in their 20s are reluctant to take the girl to the French restaurant, or buy them jewelry, because those steps tend to lead to ‘eventually, we’re going to get married,’ ” Mr. Edness, 27, said. In a tight economy, where everyone is grinding away to build a career, most men cannot fathom supporting a family until at least 30 or 35, he said. “So it’s a lot easier to meet people on an even playing field, in casual dating,” he said. “The stakes are lower.” Even in an era of ingrained ambivalence about gender roles, however, some women keep the old dating traditions alive by refusing to accept anything less. Cheryl Yeoh, a tech entrepreneur in San Francisco, said that she has been on many formal dates of late — plays, fancy restaurants. One suitor even presented her with red roses. For her, the old traditions are alive simply because she refuses to put up with anything less. She generally refuses to go on any date that is not set up a week in advance, involving a degree of forethought. “If he really wants you,” Ms. Yeoh, 29, said, “he has to put in some effort.” Microsoft admits Explorer used in Google China hack Google HQ in China (AP) Microsoft is working to patch the vulnerability through a software update Microsoft has admitted that its Internet Explorer was a weak link in the recent attacks on Google's systems that originated in China. The firm said in a blog post on Thursday that a vulnerability in the browser could allow hackers to remotely run programs on infected machines. Following the attack, Google threatened to end its operations in China. Microsoft has released preliminary guidance to mitigate the problem and is working on a formal software update. So far, Microsoft "has not seen widespread customer impact, rather only targeted and limited attacks exploiting Internet Explorer 6". "Based upon our investigations, we have determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted and sophisticated attacks against Google and possibly other corporate networks," said Microsoft's director of security response Mike Reavey in the post. 'Unfortunate' Security firm McAfee told news agency AFP that the attacks on Google, which targeted Chinese human rights activists worldwide, showed a level of sophistication above that of typical, isolated cyber criminal efforts. McAfee's vice-president of threat research Dmitri Alperovitch told AFP that although the firm had "no proof that the Chinese are behind this particular attack, I think there are indications though that a nation-state is behind it". The recent spate of attacks was alleged to have hit more than 30 companies including Google and Adobe, but security firms have since said that such invasions are routine. Mr Reavey echoed this in the post. "Unfortunately cyber crime and cyber attacks are daily occurrences in the online world. Obviously, it is unfortunate that our product is being used in the pursuit of criminal activity. We will continue to work with Google, industry leaders and the appropriate authorities to investigate this situation." Tensions between Google and China complicate U.S. diplomacy By Ellen Nakashima and Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, January 15, 2010; A14 Google's threat to pull out of China after revelations by the search-engine giant that hackers in China stole valuable corporate secrets from its computer systems comes as the United States is making a concerted push for closer ties with the Asian giant. A pullout could complicate a delicate diplomatic dance: The Obama administration would like China to make progress on human rights but also needs it to help press Iran and North Korea on nuclear issues and to restructure its economy so its people buy more and export less. Still, some analysts said, Google's bombshell announcement Tuesday -- which included the news that it would stop filtering Internet searches on its site in China -- could also give the administration an opening to raise sensitive issues, such as human rights and cyber-espionage, without seeming like the aggressor. The broad, sophisticated nature of the attack on Google and at least 33 other firms, including Juniper Networks, Adobe, Yahoo, Symantec, Dow and Northrop Grumman, may move the issue of cyberattacks up on the diplomatic agenda, experts said. On Thursday, the tech firm McAfee announced that it had isolated the malicious software used to target Google and other companies, exploiting an unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer that allowed the attackers to secretly commandeer the victims' systems. "The current bumper crop of malware is very sophisticated, highly targeted and designed to infect, conceal access, siphon data or, even worse, modify data without detection," McAfee analyst George Kurtz wrote in a blog post about the attacks. Those programs, he wrote, were "primarily seen by governments, and the mere mention of them strikes fear in any cyberwarrior." The United States has until now addressed cyberattacks "separately from diplomatic relations" with China and other countries, "but increasingly, this is more and more difficult to do," said Susan Shirk, a China expert at the University of California at San Diego. "So it's definitely complicating foreign policy relations in that sense." Rob Knake, a cybersecurity expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, said that a "reluctance" to raise the issue of Internet censorship with China "is no longer a tenable position." But Alec Ross, senior adviser for innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, told reporters that the administration has "frequently made clear to the Chinese our views on the importance of unrestricted Internet use, as well as cybersecurity." He added, "We look to the Chinese for an explanation." On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said that Chinese law "proscribes any form of hacking activity" and that "China's Internet is open and the Chinese government encourages development of the Internet." But in a statement posted on the Web site of the State Council Information Office, cabinet spokesman Wang Chen said the government should continue its policy of keeping certain types of information off the Web in China. "Maintaining the safe operation of the Internet and the secure flow of information is a fundamental requirement for guaranteeing state security and people's fundamental interests, promoting economic development and cultural prosperity and maintaining a harmonious and stable society," Wang said. David Gross, a former ambassador and U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department, said U.S. officials have been raising the issue of Google's ability to operate without censorship since the company made the decision to set up Google.cn in 2005, but always during private meetings with their Chinese counterparts. Still, Gross said, he does not think the pullout threat will catapult this issue or human rights to the top of the U.S. agenda with China: "My experience is that's not what drives those intergovernmental discussions." China has been tightening control over the media and increasing pressure on dissidents. Google's decision to stop censoring Internet search results, which the White House on Thursday said it supported, could undermine that effort, analysts said. Google did not coordinate its decision with the administration, nor did the administration advise it beforehand, officials said. A few hours before the company posted its announcement on its Web site, a Google official called a handful of administration officials to alert them. They were surprised, officials said, but not displeased. Staff writer Steven Mufson in Beijing and staff writer Cecilia Kang and staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report. Harsh justice in China Don’t mess with us Dec 30th 2009 | BEIJING From The Economist print edition No forgiveness; no quarter. Happy Christmas from China Reuters A SEASON of good cheer in much of the world, late December saw a typically harsh apportionment of justice by China’s legal system, and a typically rigid display of governmental indifference to foreign opinion. On Christmas Day a Beijing court sentenced Liu Xiaobo, a veteran human-rights activist, to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power”. China swatted away all criticism about this as groundless meddling in its internal affairs. In a separate case that was not entirely an internal affair, China’s reaction was not much different. On December 21st Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old Briton charged with smuggling drugs, had his death sentence upheld by China’s Supreme People’s Court. Rejecting pleas for clemency from Mr Shaikh’s family, international human-rights groups, and the British government, Chinese authorities executed him by lethal injection on December 29th in the north-western region of Xinjiang, where he was first arrested in late 2007 after carrying roughly 4kg of heroin into the country. Family members claimed Mr Shaikh suffered from bipolar disorder, and was the victim of manipulation by the drugs traffickers who, they claimed, tricked him into carrying the contraband. British officials announced news of the execution before China did. Hours after it took place China’s foreign-ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said it would brook no outside interference in the workings of its legal system, and expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to Britain’s complaints. The prime minister, Gordon Brown had said he was “appalled” and condemned the execution “in the strongest terms”. Ms Jiang said Mr Shaikh’s case was handled appropriately and all his legal rights had been honoured at trial. A day after the execution, Chinese newspapers were full of angry commentary over Britain’s attempt to intervene. Many drew comparisons to the Opium War. Although it ended in the first known execution of a European in China since the 1950s, Mr Shaikh’s case was otherwise not unusual. According to available (and incomplete) statistics, China executed 1,700 convicts in 2008, or nearly five each day. Neither was the harsh treatment meted out to Mr Liu unusual by Chinese standards. Criticism of the government, though always risky, is sometimes tolerated. Attempts to organise criticism, however, as Mr Liu had by helping draft a petition calling for political freedoms, are routinely met with a firm thumping. Jailed twice before for his political activities Mr Liu knew this as well as anyone. He had said he was ready to face prison again. The document he helped write in December 2008 was called Charter 08. It soon attracted more than 300 other Chinese signatures. Its publication marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the year since its release, thousands more have signed it. Charter 08 calls for sweeping changes in China’s political order, including an end to limits on free expression, political activity and religious practice. It proposes drastic reforms that would dismantle one-party rule, allow public supervision of government officials, and free the army and judiciary from Communist Party control. Mr Liu was detained just before the release of the manifesto and held for six months before charges were lodged. His sentencing came two days after a trial lasting less than three hours. The 11-year term exceeds any other known sentence for the vague crime of “inciting subversion”. Within days of the sentencing, Chinese media published a speech by a senior security official who warned of threats to China’s social stability from “hostile forces stirring up chaos” and called for “pre-emptive attacks” against them. “In the new year, there will be no relaxation of stability preservation, and no lightening of pressure on stability,” said Yang Huanning, a deputy minister of public security. Mr Liu won supporters on the internet, a central theatre these days in the struggle for civil liberties. The authorities are moving to tighten their control there. Besides stepping up monitoring and blocking “unsuitable” web traffic, regulators have put new restrictions on the registration and operation of websites by individuals. The founder of a web-hosting service in Beijing says that internet servers have been unceremoniously unplugged under new rules and new standards of enforcement. “For nine years I have run a successful and legal business, and now I have suddenly been told that what I do makes me a criminal.” Worried that his company may not survive, and angry about the arbitrary changes, he will not, however, circulate a protest petition—not if he is wise, that is. Back to top ^^ August 31, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version China Slammed Over Dalai Lama BY WILLIAM C. MANN - Associated Press August 31, 2007 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/61761 WASHINGTON - A government advisory panel on religious freedom denounced today new regulations issued by China that appear aimed at undermining the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. The regulations go into effect on tomorrow. Along with the Buddhist section, the rules also reassert China's right to name Roman Catholic bishops. The Vatican says no agency outside the church can do that. In a statement, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Friday that the Buddhist section is "clearly designed to undermine the influence of the Dalai Lama" by requiring government approval of "living Buddhas" in violation of international legal guarantees of religious freedom. According to the commission, the regulations order reincarnate Tibetan lamas, paramount of whom is the Dalai Lama, "respect and protect the principles of unification of the state." The edict denies the right of any foreign organization or individual to interfere with the state's process of enthroning living Buddhas. China has held a centuries-old claim on Tibet, a Himalayan region west of the main Chinese territory, and enforced with a military invasion in 1951. The Dalai Lama resisted but finally fled in 1959 to continue his campaign from exile in Dharamsala, India, where he remains. The Dalai Lama, holder of the Nobel Peace Prize and a Congressional Gold Medal, just turned 72. A special envoy has been representing him in on-and-off negotiations on an autonomy arrangement for the region. Tibetan monks will select the reincarnated Dalai Lama after his death. In 1995, the Dalai Lama chose 6-year-old Gendun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama, the most exalted figure of Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. The boy and his family disappeared soon after and have not been heard from since. China's communist-led government later named Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama and said Nyima and his family were being kept in a secret location for their protection. Such suppression of religious freedom in Tibet "again demonstrates Beijing's violation of international covenants recognizing the basic right of religious communities to choose their religious leaders and teachers," the U.S. commission statement said. On the Catholic question, the statement said China's insistence that it choose bishops "is a violation of China's international obligations and further sets back any rapprochement between the 'unregistered' and 'official' Catholic churches in China." ___ On the Net: Commission on religious freedom: http://www.uscirf.gov Dalai Lama biography: http://www.tibet.com/DL/biography.html August 31, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version From aberlight@sbcglobal.net Sun Nov 2 23:01:22 2008 Received: from web83912.mail.sp1.yahoo.com (web83912.mail.sp1.yahoo.com [69.147.92.119]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with SMTP id mA341Ftm021568 for ; Sun, 2 Nov 2008 23:01:22 -0500 Received: (qmail 32650 invoked by uid 60001); 3 Nov 2008 04:01:08 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=sbcglobal.net; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Reply-To:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-ID; b=tERpEOeRxRqqxICy1BBLokCPeV66GxEHsa6579dWFA08dW0iA7BjkfBQKRl5AaurAEigJ0iKexTg3CBFlBAjV4JHbOCSFMngv+9N9DkndXeoz7bD5/Aj6b6VnRraQKALGlUhb0iftbUzy7jGdDCr/ndqX3Ib+clnWQwqwmkWfPw=; X-YMail-OSG: dZT7m14VM1nvTn2cotJte41cjPGg5LCTRzgnacOPAbcJENnnfApjKZbVWNzMHjhlyDCfiV82H_QoSLCCLMoM1D4mLl0m_Stm5jSSyL1DnZK_J8NtukUGj6.dO0MwvU5Y76c- Received: from [70.232.71.174] by web83912.mail.sp1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:01:07 PST X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.218.2 Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 20:01:07 -0800 (PST) From: CHRIS CAMPBELL Reply-To: aberlight@sbcglobal.net Subject: Cointalk To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com, hangout@mrbrklyn.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1226202520-1225684867=:32396" Message-ID: <304867.32396.qm@web83912.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> X-Keywords: X-UID: 12568 Status: RO Content-Length: 1031 Lines: 15 --0-1226202520-1225684867=:32396 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I really have no idea who you are or how you decided to get involved in this, but you are the typical piece of shit that has brought down the cointalk forum. It is sad that people like you could carry on a discussion over any thing to clear the void in your lives. Go Fuck yourself as you seem to be incapable of landing a woman. --0-1226202520-1225684867=:32396 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
I really have no idea who you are or how you decided to get involved in this, but you are the typical piece of shit that has brought down the cointalk forum. It is sad that people like you could carry on a discussion over anything to clear the void in your lives.  Go Fuck yourself as you seem to be incapable of landing a woman.
--0-1226202520-1225684867=:32396-- pril 12, 2007 Citigroup to Cut 17,000 Jobs and Move 9,500 By ERIC DASH Citigroup announced today that it would eliminate or reassign more than 26,500 jobs as part of a sweeping overhaul to cut costs and streamline the bank’s sprawling global operations. Under intense pressure from investors, the company said it plans to lay off more than 17,000 workers this year, with the first pink slips expected to come this week. About 9,500 jobs will be moved to places overseas or smaller American cities where the cost of doing business is lower from more expensive cities like London, Tokyo and New York, where the company has its headquarters. Two-thirds of those jobs will be lost through attrition; about half will stay in their existing country or geographic region. About 8 percent of Citigroup’s 327,000 workers, from entry-level consumer bankers to senior executives in the corporate and investment bank, will be affected by the restructuring. All five of its major business divisions face cuts. About 1,600 net jobs will be eliminated in New York City, where Citigroup is the largest private employer, with 27,000 workers. An additional 200 net jobs will be lost in New York State, about 75 net jobs will be cut in Connecticut, and only a handful will be shed in New Jersey. Citigroup officials only provided “net” job numbers for the region so the total number of New York area workers affected by the restructuring is probably much larger than the company has disclosed. Citigroup has so far not provided the number of jobs in each of its businesses or the types of jobs expected to be lost. “We are initiating a change in how we run the business,” said Charles O. Prince III, Citigroup’s chairman and chief executive, promising a “more efficient, tightly managed” company on a conference call with analysts and investors. “This is not a one-time effort,” he added. “It is the start of a different way of doing things at Citigroup. It is a different way of thinking about expense management.” To cover the cost of the restructuring, Citigroup said it would take a $1.38 billion pretax charge against earnings in the first quarter of 2007 and $200 million more over subsequent quarters the rest of the year. However, it expects the initiative to yield about $2.1 billion in savings in 2007 and $4.76 billion by 2009. The restructuring is Citigroup’s first overhaul since a merger forged the banking giant nearly a decade ago and had been anxiously awaited by Wall Street ever since plans were announced in December. It comes as Mr. Prince faces mounting criticism from shareholders frustrated by expenses that are rising twice as fast as revenue. Citigroup shares fell 1.6 percent today. They have barely budged since Mr. Prince took over as chief executive in October 2003. On Wall Street, investors and analysts had been expecting the restructuring to reduce operating expenses by at least $2 billion a year, including $400 million of previously announced savings from technology improvements. But whether the reorganization alone can fuel growth at Citigroup remains an open question. Not only have Citigroup’s expenses been high, but revenue growth, particularly in the United States consumer division, has been sluggish. Mr. Prince must confront both problems amid a challenging operating environment. “2007 is a pivotal year for the company,” said Jason Goldberg, a banking analyst at Lehman Brothers. “It just takes a long time to turn an oil tanker, and one of the things we hope this restructuring does is make Citigroup a bit more nimble.” Over the last three months, Citigroup’s chief operating officer, Robert Druskin, has been working with consultants from Mercer Oliver Wyman, a boutique firm specializing in the financial services industry, to conduct a broad-based “structural review.” Their mission was to flush out big expenses that have bogged down the company as it has bulked up. Citigroup expects to achieve the majority of its savings by eliminating overlapping jobs, especially in its middle management and corporate staff ranks. About $1 billion of the $1.4 billion restructuring charge is related to severance, Mr. Druskin said, and a more efficient management structure is expected to generate 40 percent to 45 percent of the savings. Citigroup officials would not detail the number of jobs each business expects to shed. Nor would it disclose the number of layoffs in specific places. The bank did note that about 9,700 positions, or about 57 percent of the 17,000 job cuts, are expected to come from outside the United States. Workers will receive enhanced severance packages, the company said. There are not expected to be voluntary buyouts. Citigroup also expects to move more than 9,500 positions, from back-office and call center positions to corporate staff, to places with lower costs. In New York City, for example, some jobs will be moved to Buffalo. In Tokyo, some will be moved to Okinawa. And in London, some could be headed to Poland. Over all, many back-office jobs could wind up in India, where the company is hiring rapidly. Most positions that involve face-to-face contact with clients will not be affected by the changes, Citigroup officials say. Of the company’s main businesses, Citigroup’s consumer and credit card operations are expected to experience the lion’s share of the job cuts. Customer service employees and back-office workers will likely be among the groups most affected. The company expects about $650 million in savings in 2007, with the figure to grow to about $1.25 billion annually for each of the next two years. Citigroup employees within the investment bank and brokerage and private banking divisions also face layoffs. Smith Barney plans to close about 45 smaller retail brokerage offices, moving those employees to nearby branches. And over the last few weeks, Citigroup’s private bank and global transaction services units announced the departure of several senior executives, part of a broader streamlining effort. The company expects to reduce investment banking and trading expenses by about $400 million in 2007, with $500 million more annually for each of the next two years. Citigroup said that its brokerage and private bank would reap $150 million to $175 million in annual cost savings. But across the company, many of the reductions are expected to come from eliminating overlapping or duplicative staff jobs, especially in the human resources, legal and administrative ranks. Shrinking the number of compliance staff, after bolstering those departments for several years, has also been priority. Many departments will be consolidated or fashioned into utility groups, like a litigation or campus recruiting division. Instead of serving an individual business, like investment banking or consumer banking, they will provide services for an entire country or region. And more decision-making authority will be pushed out to the leaders of each geographic region. “We found, in many instances, that we had simply too many layers,” Mr. Druskin said on the conference call. “There were often too many people between where a decision was needed and where a decision was made.” Streamlining the company’s technology systems is expected to generate an additional 35 percent of the expense reductions. Citigroup said it was planning to cut its 42 data centers in half by 2009, consolidate its mortgage origination systems, and also reap savings from an ambitious five-year project to integrate its consumer-banking systems. The remaining 5 percent of savings is expected to come from centralizing its purchasing operations. Today, about 65 percent of its purchases are centralized; by 2009, that number is projected to reach 100 percent. On the conference call, Mr. Prince vowed that the changes would make Citigroup “more nimble, more adaptive, and better able to grab opportunities around the world.” They also come with his career and the company’s growth prospects on the line. While Mr. Prince laid out a strategy to deliver internal and international growth, he has so far failed to deliver results and has been forced to adjust his plans. He has shaken up his management team, elevating Mr. Druskin as his chief lieutenant and hiring Gary L. Crittenden, a longtime chief financial officer and restructuring specialist, as his new financial chief. Mr. Prince has also cut back on some of the company’s planned investment spending, and recently has placed a greater emphasis on acquisitions, including a $427 million purchase of Taiwan’s Bank of Overseas Chinese that was announced earlier this week. But ever since Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, Citigroup’s largest individual shareholder, called for “draconian measures” to reduce operating expenses last summer, Mr. Prince has been under pressure to get the bank’s high cost structure more in line with its peers. Citigroup officials said this morning that the figures they released were not aspirational. “We know how we will get every dollar,” Mr. Druskin said. “We know how we get every head, and we will track this very vigorously.” Home * World * U.S. * N.Y. / Region * Business * Technology * Science * Health * Sports * Opinion * Arts * Style * Travel * Jobs * Real Estate * Automobiles * Back to Top Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company * Privacy Policy * Search * Corrections * RSS * First Look * Help * Contact Us * Work for Us * Site Map * NOVEMBER 20, 2009, 10:24 P.M. ET Eric Holder's Baffling KSM Decision The attorney general's Senate testimony this week did nothing to reassure the families of 9/11's victims. By DAVID BEAMER On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to question Attorney General Eric Holder about his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in criminal courts rather than military tribunals. As the father of Todd Beamer, who died on United Airlines Flight 93, I was able to attend that hearing. What transpired caused me great concern and shook my confidence in our current administration. The committee, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), displayed the division in our country not only visually—the Democrats were seated on the left and the Republicans on the right—but in every aspect of the proceedings. I expected that some members would agree with Mr. Holder and that others would have challenging questions about his decision. What I did not anticipate was the level of partisanship showed by the majority party. It seemed clear to me and other family members of victims that party loyalty is trumping concern for America's security interests. In his opening remarks, Attorney General Holder acknowledged that these defendants could have been brought to trial in civilian court or before military tribunals. But he made the argument that trying them in our criminal courts would restore the integrity of our judicial system. He assured us that the trials would be quick, that the safety of New Yorkers would be paramount, that classified information would not be revealed, that the evidence was overwhelming, and that justice would be served. Then he said that the USS Cole attackers would be tried in military courts since they attacked our military. So how does Mr. Holder categorize the Pentagon? Inexplicably, he offered up the body count of 9/11, the fact that civilian deaths outnumbered military ones, as a rationale for his decision. Then the Republican members proceeded to ask Mr. Holder thoughtful questions. Some examples: How can we be assured that these enemies will be found guilty? Given that criminal courts are now the presumed venue for those captured on the battlefield, will soldiers need to read them their rights at the time of capture? Since you wish to make exceptions on a case-by-case basis to the presumed civil venue, don't all those captured need to be read their rights and have the opportunity to remain silent? Won't this venue expose intelligence to our enemies? Can our classified information really be secured? Can we in fact predict how the judge will rule? If these people are brought into the country will they get additional rights under immigration law? What if they claim asylum? The attorney general seemed bewildered in the face of these inquiries. Recurring themes in his responses included "I think," and "I can't imagine," and "I am not an expert in immigration." Has our attorney general not considered these issues, or imagined the possible unintended consequences that will arise from his historic decision? It certainly seemed that way. If he had, he would have had better answers. A second shocker: Mr. Holder said that he and his boss had not spoken in person about this decision. This matter only involves upholding the constitutional rights of Americans, establishing a precedent with battlefield impact, and the safety and security of our citizens in a time of war. What are the criteria to make something a priority with President Barack Obama? How can it be that this matter didn't make the cut? The Democrats used much of their questioning time to heap praise upon Mr. Holder. They all repeated the same trope: We'll show the world that America can conduct these trials openly in criminal courts. And we'll be successful, even as we convey rights to the defendants that are not warranted. Since when has "show the world" been a primary objective? No thoughtful questions from the majority party regarding this decision were forthcoming. Their questions mostly addressed other matters. They discussed overcrowding in our prisons (too many drug criminals being sentenced), asked why none of the $500 million in appropriations have helped the rape-kit processing backlog, and inquired about when recommendations for additional staff would be presented for confirmation. Their lack of attention to the pressing matter at hand suggested apathy. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) did ask a question about how much the trials will cost. Clearly there will be expense incurred if this does go to trial in New York City. The early, and by no means complete, estimate is that it will cost $75 million for the first year. Mr. Schumer did not express any concern about the costs involved but only asked the attorney general for assurance that all would be covered by federal funds. This question was promptly and explicitly answered in the affirmative by Mr. Holder. After all, this is a rather modest amount by Washington standards. Our enemies must be thrilled. We are willingly handing them an opportunity to inflict economic harm on New York City, keep their cause in the headlines, gather new intelligence, create new terror strategies, stimulate recruiting, celebrate new-found rights, and foist a fresh round of pain and suffering upon their victims. This decision is September 11, the sequel. It is my hope that Mr. Holder will reconsider. A final observation: During the proceedings a young lady, dutifully attentive, sat with a stack of paper about 15 inches high on her lap. The papers contained names, single spaced, of some 100,000 people who signed a letter in opposition to this decision. This young woman, Jill Regan, lost her dad, Donald J. Regan, FDNY of the Bronx, who died trying to save others on 9/11. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Al.) asked that those names be entered into the record at the end of the session. It was agreed, but by that time the chairmen and most of the Democrats were already gone. I grieved for her—and for all of us—anew. Drug Tests Often Trigger False Positives Poppy Seeds, Cold Medications Can Trigger False Alarms Share this: Font size: AAA By Charlene Laino WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD drug_abuse_tests_inaccuracies_2.jpg May 28, 2010 (New Orleans) -- If your child insists his positive drug test results are a mistake, there's a chance he could be telling the truth. Drug tests generally produce false-positive results in 5% to 10% of cases and false negatives in 10% to 15% of cases, new research shows. Eating as little as a teaspoon of poppy seeds -- less than the amount on a poppy seed bagel -- can produce false-positive results on tests for opioid abuse, says Dwight Smith, MD, of the VA Medical Center in Black Hills, S.D. The poppy seeds can lead to false-positive results for two or three days, he says, yet one recent study showed only about 50% of doctors were aware of the problem. Knowing the tests' limitations is crucial given that about 150 million drug tests were conducted in the United States last year, he says. "We drug test everyone, our students, our athletes," Smith says. Also, many private and federal employers require regular testing, he says. False-Positive Results in 5% to 10% of Cases To get a better picture of the tests' flaws, Smith and colleagues at Boston Medical Center reviewed scientific articles on drug screening published between January 1980 and September 2009. The results were presented at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting. Cold medications, the antidepressant Wellbutrin, and tricyclic antidepressants can trigger false-positive results on tests for amphetamines, according to the review, and the antidepressant Zoloft and the painkiller Daypro can show up as a benzodiazepine problem. The quinolone antibiotic drugs can trigger false positives for opioids, and the HIV medication Sustiva can show up as marijuana use, Smith says. On the other hand, just being in the room with someone who is smoking marijuana is not going to trigger false positive results, no matter what your child claims, he says. "Unless [they] were in the van with Cheech and Chong, that's not what happened," Smith says. And "cocaine is cocaine -- you don’t get many false positives or false negatives," says Petros Levounis, MD, director of the Addiction Institute of New York at St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Standard Drug Tests Sometimes Miss Oxycodone Another problem is that most standard drug tests have a substantial false-negative rate for oxycodone (OxyContin, Percolone, Roxicodone) an opioid drug that's been associated with high levels of abuse. In some cases, a person could be taking oxycodone and the routine drug screen may miss it and report as negative. Oxycodone is also found in the medications Percocet, Roxicet, and Tylox. Yet one study in the review showed that 88% of doctors didn't know that they may need to order a special test to accurately screen for oxycodone. Other opioids missed by standard tests include methadone, fentanyl, Ultram, Subutex, and Suboxone, Smith says. Likewise, standard tests may miss some sedative and hypnotic drugs. Another problem is that there are no federal guidelines setting threshold levels for positive results, Smith says. Over the years, people have come up with all sorts of ways to try to beat the tests, mainly by diluting urine samples, he says. "We really have no good numbers on how prevalent drug test cheating is," Smith says, so further research is needed. This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal. View Article Sources Sources SOURCES: 163rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, New Orleans, May 22-26, 2010. Dwight Smith, MD, VA Medical Center, Black Hills, S.D. Petros Levounis, MD, director, Addiction Institute of New York, St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospital, New York. © 2010 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved. If you convert you die By editor • on January 30, 2010 * Print * Comment Feed * Stumble it * Digg it * del.icio.us * Facebook Nagla Al Imam, recently announced her conversion to Christianity in Cairo, Egypt. The announcement brought shock waves in and beyond Egypt. This is perhaps the first case ever of its kind, where a Muslim woman, who is also a Sharia expert, has openly challenged Islamic apostasy laws from within the Muslim world. Nonie Darwish, FrontPage Magazine, August 3, 2009 Very few people in the West know what is going on inside the Muslim world and what it portends for them. The fact is that through the dominant media, such as CNN, Americans are subjected to much of the same misinformation with regard to Islam that I grew up with inside the Muslim world. The result is that Americans are in the dark attempting to formulate their strategy of how to defend themselves against the threat of terror, domestic jihad and Sharia. While Americans get ridiculed for being “Islamophobes,” the Muslim world itself is undergoing a huge and painful awakening. For instance, a prominent Egyptian lawyer and women’s rights activist, Nagla Al Imam, recently announced her conversion to Christianity in Cairo, Egypt. The announcement brought shock waves in and beyond Egypt. This is perhaps the first case ever of its kind, where a Muslim woman, who is also a Sharia expert, has openly challenged Islamic apostasy laws from within the Muslim world. Ms. Al Imam’s incredible courage was on display in an internet chat room, where she announced that she is not afraid, will stand up for the human rights of apostates and refuses to leave her homeland, Egypt. This was immediately followed by attacks and calls (‘fatwas’) for death of the 36 year-old graduate of Al Azhar Islamic University. Egyptian media not only reported the threat but also participated in the attacks. Ms. Al Imam was literally entrapped by a TV station ‘Al Mihwar’ with the pretext of inviting her for an interview. Upon arrival to the TV studio she was told the show she was to appear on was cancelled. She was then taken forcibly to a room where she was held against her will for hours inside the studio. She was assaulted, threatened and insulted by several people. She was able to escape, and went to her internet chat room telling the world what happened and said she will demand protection from the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Such action is common not only against apostates but anyone who deviates from the dictates of Islam or demands reform. Many Muslim journalists, intellectuals and feminists who consider themselves Muslims but are critical of Sharia are often intimidated, threatened or even killed for the slightest independent views using the apostasy card to keep them quiet. Another recent case in Egypt is that of a brilliant intellectual by the name of Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany. He was recently accused of apostasy even though he denied it on TV and insisted he is still a Muslim. But fatwas of death were immediately issued against him. Mr. El Qemany recently wrote the following: “I was granted the State Award for Social Sciences, on June 25th 2009. The hard-line radical militant groups considered that the state has adopted this intellectual secular trend officially, infuriating the mentioned group which called on the State to withdraw the prize with the declaration of my defection from Islam and excommunication which means in our country, I could be slain; any citizen is allowed to kill me and be awarded by God in Paradise. The following parties have participated in the statements of atonement: 1 – Al-Azhar Scholars Front headed by Yahya Ismail Habloush, which issued the first statement of atonement on July 10, 2009. 2 – The Islamic Group (condemned terrorist group) issued a statement of atonement on July 10, 2009. 3 – The Muslim Brotherhood hailed the atonement, and were presented at the parliament by Hamdi Hassan requesting the withdrawal of the award and the declaration of religious-defection and excommunication on July 7, 2009. The Muslim Brotherhood also declared my excommunication on Mohwar Channel on July 11, 2009 and on Al Faraeen Channel on July 13, 2009. 4 – The Salafi (Fundamentalist) Group (condemned terrorist group) dedicated its Internet site named “The Egyptians” for excommunicating me and incitements to kill me, since the date of obtaining the prize until today. 5 – Al Nas channel, which represents the theoretical side of bloody terrorism which declared excommunication and demanded “all citizens who can” to kill me immediately, on July 24 and 25, 2009. 6 – The Hisbah Sheikh Youssef Al Badri in Egypt declared on the channel “ON TV” on July 3, 2009 that I have cursed God and the Prophet Mohammad in my books even though I have challenged him and others to refer to a single text written by me where such claims were made. Due to this proclamation, he has issued an incitement to kill me. 7 – A member of the Al-Azhar scholars, Sheikh Mohammed El Berry, on Mihwar TV Channel on July 11, 2009 announced my atonement as he also said that he did not read any of my writings since he does not read “garbage”. He repeated the same words on the channel “ON TV” on July 22, 2009. 8 – Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the former Chairman of the “State Religious Affairs Advisory Board”, issued a statement declaring my infidelity and calling for slaying me for “insulting the Prophet of Islam, the God of Islam” on July 24, 2009. 9 – The Sheiks of more than 5000 mosques on Friday prayers on July 24, 2009 declared the incitement to kill me, especially in my hometown, which led to the rampage against my family and relatives, and that could possibly evolve to some serious consequences in the coming weeks. Due to the above, I call upon the conscience of all humanity in the free world to come to me and my children’s rescue by providing moral support and the condemnation and denunciation of the radical thinking with quick solutions to save us from the danger that is luring around us. This is a distress call to all bodies and individuals. A call to the consciences of every free individual in the world. Signed: Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany- Researcher.” In spite of the cover up, this is perhaps the first time in the history of Islam that Muslims finally have access to the truth about their own religion, thanks to the Internet and satellite dishes (invented by infidels). There are daily news reports of heart-broken Muslims who say they cannot believe what is written in Muslim scriptures and say that Muslims have been living under the greatest lie in human history. Others simply deny and say that it can’t be so. While Saudi Arabia is spending billions to Islamize the West, many Muslim prisoners of Islamic submission are dying or leaving the religion quietly. The relatively few number of Muslims who dare to convert to Christianity do it in extreme secrecy. That is because the penalty for leaving Islam is death in all schools of Sharia, both Sunni and Shiite. Those who wrote Sharia centuries ago knew that keeping Muslims in total submission would be very difficult to maintain, and thus they established barbaric laws condemning Muslims to death for exercising their basic human rights to choose their own religion. Sharia never entrusted its enforcement only to the formal legal system. Islam promises heavenly rewards to individual Muslims who take the law into their own hands. Sharia also states that the killers of apostates and adulterers are not murderers and therefore are not to be punished. That is why, for Islam to achieve 100% compliance to Sharia enforcement, Muslim individuals are encouraged to take matters into their own hands. The end result is a chaotic society where everything happens behind closed doors but at a very heavy price to interpersonal relationships. Fear and distrust of others exists in all Muslim societies. Muslims are not just distrustful of the West, but they are distrustful of one another. In Muslim society, people are often more afraid of their neighbors and family members than of the police. Thus, we see husbands or fathers pressured to apply Sharia by killing an adulterous wife or daughter, or a perfect stranger participate in the killing of an apostate in the public square. Very few get arrested or punished for such crimes across the Muslim world. The ingenious Sharia uses vigilante street justice to bring about Islamic submission. That is why civil unrest and honor crimes go wherever Islam goes. The power of Islam comes from turning Muslim against Muslim — with a reward in heaven. The above two examples of Islamic tyranny are not unique to Egypt, but exist in all Muslim countries. Islamic tyranny is encapsulated in a law that some Muslims claim to be their religious right in America. Many American citizens who left Islam are living in constant fear from Islamist individuals and groups right here, in the land of the free and home of the brave. I am one of them. ——————————————————————————– Nonie Darwish is an American of Arab/Muslim origin. She is co-founder of Former Muslims United. Her new book is Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law. Lib Dems get a chance to vote on copyright reform The Liberal Democrats seem keen to criminalise those who download a movie without paying for it – but why? Cory Doctorow, by NK Guy, nkguy.com.tiff Cory Doctorow guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 September 2011 06.35 EDT larger | smaller Don Foster Does Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster really consider copyright infringement to be as serious as the theft of physical property? Photograph: Chris Ison/PA This weekend's Lib Dem conference will feature a debate and vote on a new IT policy paper. Getting IT policy right is hard, because technology is a moving target; but getting IT policy right is vital, because today there's virtually nothing we do that doesn't touch on IT, and tomorrow there'll be practically nothing that doesn't require it. In other words, there's not really any such thing as "IT policy" any more – there's just policy. The working group responsible for the new paper – titled Preparing the Ground: Stimulating Growth in the Digital Economy – notes that this is the first overhaul of Lib Dem IT policy since 2003. The group further states that this particular document was spurred into creation by the 2010 Digital Economy Act, which was rammed through Parliament in the wash-up without any debate, though not before two Lib Dem lords had introduced an amendment in favour of a national regime of internet censorship to curb copyright infringement (this amendment was later revealed to have been written by the UK record industry's chief lobbyist). The party's involvement in advocating censorship sparked a revolt among the rank and file at the next general conference, leading to passage of a resolution to reject the censorship proposal and to fight against web censorship under any rubric. Accordingly, this paper lays out two proposals for the membership: option A would require the party's MPs to work to repeal sections 3-18 of the Digital Economy Act, which establish the national copyright censorwall and make provision for disconnecting families from the internet if someone using their connection is accused of illegal downloading. Option B is much softer, only seeking the repeal of sections 17 and 18, the web censorship stuff that the Lib Dems have already rejected, and that has also been rejected by Vince Cable, Ofcom and Professor Hargreaves, the independent expert who prepared a report on the Digital Economy Act for government, and there's already a Lib Dem motion on the table in parliament to repeal these sections, all of which would render option B a pretty symbolic gesture at best. Though not entirely symbolic, as Jeremy Hunt is back on the internet censorship war-path this week, calling on Google and ISPs to block websites that the entertainment industry doesn't like. Really, option A should be a no-brainer for a party that styles itself as a bastion of personal liberty. Disconnecting families from the internet because someone who used their connection was accused of violating copyright is both disproportionate and illiberal. If the internet were merely a means of delivering entertainment, then letting the entertainment industry dictate who does and who doesn't have access to it might make sense. But the internet is the preferred vehicle for civic engagement, politics, news, education, employment, health delivery and participation in all forms of 21st century life, and exacting collective punishment on whole households of people because someone they know may or may not have downloaded a movie without paying for it is mad. Besides, it won't work. In France, where a version of this law is already in effect, surveys show that only 4% of illegal downloaders are deterred by it. It will be interesting to watch how the party goes on this issue. It's clear from the shameful introduction of the web-censorship clause by the Lib Dem lords that there are some in the party whose version of protecting personal liberty and defending liberalism checks out the minute copyright infringement is on the table. That split is in dire evidence in Preparing the Ground. I've seen the "final draft" of the paper as prepared by the party's working group, and I've seen the paper that the membership will be given this weekend, and somewhere between the "final draft" and the paper as published, someone has inserted a clause that describes copyright infringement as "a form of theft" and goes on to say that "there is no reason why digital offenders should not be prosecuted under the criminal law in the same way as those who steal tangible goods". This is pretty outre stuff. Every developed nation's legal system treats thefts of tangible goods as absolutely distinct from copyright violation. Applying criminal sanctions for copyright infringement would be unprecedented in the industrialised world. Don Foster, the Lib Dem MP with the DCMS brief, apparently lobbied to have "a statement making clear that copyright infringement is as serious as theft" included in the document, though his staff disavows any involvement in the phrasing and says: "For Don, non-commercial copyright infringement has only ever been a civil issue." Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem MP who was also involved in the drafting, says, "there is no intention to change the current system in this regard". So it's rather a mystery who is behind this bizarre statement that everyone seems to disavow. Foster says: "The principle that 'digital piracy is a form of theft' appeared to already be in the paper, but it wasn't stated explicitly. I was one of a few people who thought it could be made more explicit, and it was. I certainly didn't ask for the insertion of anything that was not in the spirit of the original document." I've read that original document, and I'm afraid I have to disagree. Luckily for the Lib Dem members, a vote for option A or B doesn't mean a vote in favour of jail time or criminal records for people who download music or TV. But if I were at the conference this weekend, I'd want some answers about how an extreme, illiberal proposal for criminalising copyright infringement made it into the party's official policy document. © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. David Harris Executive Director, AJC, and Senior Associate, St. Antony's College, Oxford (2009-11) GET UPDATES FROM David Harris Dear New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof Posted: 10/9/11 09:07 PM ET You recently wrote a column in The New York Times entitled "Is Israel Its Own Worst Enemy?" Asserting that yours is "an act of friendship," you unleashed a torrent of criticism against Israel, claiming, among other angry accusations, that the Jewish state is "endangered most by its leaders and maximalist stance." I beg to differ. And no, I don't do so as an opponent of a two-state agreement or a fan of settlements throughout the West Bank. I happen to be neither. While I've never for a moment argued that Israel should be walled off from critical scrutiny, I simply think you've spun a narrative which is highly selective in its purported analysis. Stripped to its bare minimum, you believe that peace with the Palestinians would be just around the corner if only Israel had enlightened leadership today. Your main claim is that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu prefers settlements -- a "national suicide policy" -- to peace. Is that so? Yes, it's true another step toward building within Gilo, a well-developed Jerusalem neighborhood, was just taken and the timing was unhelpful. But, in your column, you noted: "Every negotiator knows the framework of a peace agreement." Those negotiators all understand that Gilo will remain part of Israel in any conceivable deal. No, I'm not one of those you disparage as believing that "Jerusalem must all belong to Israel in any peace deal." But I do know that, in any final agreement, Jerusalem will necessarily look different from what did on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War, taking into account historical and demographic realities. But what's most striking is that you insulate the Palestinian Authority (PA) from any responsibility for the current impasse. While going after Israel with a two-by-four, and grotesquely implying that "hard-liners like Netanyahu" are to be lumped together with "hard-liners like Hamas," the PA gets a free pass. Is that because you genuinely believe they're squeaky clean, or rather because, as the political cliché goes, they're the "weaker party" and, therefore, need to be coddled? Either way, you're missing an essential part of the story you're seeking to describe. First, why isn't the PA at the bargaining table across from Israel? President Abbas was there till early 2009, when, it should be noted, neither side imposed preconditions on the other to pursue those talks. Importantly as well, the Israelis put a far-reaching two-state deal on that table -- not the first such offer, by the way -- only to have it once again rebuffed. Anything to be learned from that experience? Second, if the Palestinians can now seek to impose preconditions on Israel for a resumption of talks, why shouldn't Israel be able to do the same? Moreover, when the prime minister you vilify became Israel's first leader to agree to a moratorium on settlement building for ten months, where were the Palestinians? Third, did you catch President Abbas' speech at the UN General Assembly on September 23, as part of his unilateral UN gambit? If so, would you characterize it as offering an olive branch? If you were an Israeli, irrespective of President Clinton's unbecoming attempt at ethno-religious categorizing of Israeli citizens, would you take comfort from the Palestinian leader's fiery words? Fourth, did you by chance see President Abbas' op-ed, on May 15, in your newspaper? Did you notice his rewriting of Middle East history, which the fact checkers somehow missed? Was that piece meant to send an encouraging note to Israel, the other half of the equation, about the PA's credibility as a peace partner? Fifth, did you read President Abbas' comment, in early September: "We are going to complain that as Palestinians we have been under occupation for 63 years."? That, of course, takes the "occupation" back to 1948, the year of Israel's establishment, rather than the Six-Day War. Does this mean, in Palestinian eyes, that the conflict is territorial or existential? Sixth, did you notice the comment of the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, Abdullah Abdullah, as reported the other day in Lebanon's Daily Star? The ambassador said "even Palestinian refugees who are living in [refugee camps] inside the [Palestinian] state, they are still refugees. They will not be considered citizens." In other words, he said, the new Palestinian state would "absolutely not" be issuing passports to Palestinian refugees. Did the PA reject his comment? If so, I missed it. And if a new Palestinian state is not the answer to the Palestinian refugee issue, then what exactly is? Seventh, in Brazil, the Palestinian ambassador there, Alzebin Ibrahim, was quoted in the prominent magazine Veja-Brazil as saying to a contingent of university students that "Israel should disappear," expressing his preference for the final outcome. Did you catch it? Again, if the PA repudiated the ambassador's words, it escaped me. Eighth, you note that the "Palestinians are divided," but fail to mention the PA-Hamas reconciliation agreement or in any other way address how the Hamas factor is to be addressed in the context of the current diplomatic imbroglio. Skipping it, however, won't make it go away -- and it's not a minor matter, either. Ninth, you omit any reference to another PA action that raises questions about prospects for peace -- glorification of Palestinian terrorists. Among the most glaring examples of late was the visit earlier this year by a PA cabinet minister, Issa Karake, to the family of Abbas Al-Sayed. Al-Sayed was the Hamas mastermind of the terrorist attack on a Passover Seder in Netanya, an Israeli coastal city. Thirty people were killed in the assault. On March 28, 2011, Isake presented Al-Sayed's family with a commemorative plaque marking the ninth anniversary of the carnage. If cold-blooded murderers are to be lionized by the PA, does this advance the prospects of peaceful conflict resolution? And finally, as Prime Minister Netanyahu has said more than once, if the PA were to recognize the goal of two states for two peoples, then, from Israel's viewpoint, the way would be paved for a speedy breakthrough. But President Abbas can't acknowledge the link between Israel and the Jewish people, i.e., the inherent legitimacy of the state. In fact, he's made clear he won't. How does that stance help inspire confidence to move the peace process forward? Respectfully, the Israeli people don't need lectures on the imperatives of peace. After 63 years, I assure you, they understand what the absence of peace means far better than you and I do. But they also know, to borrow a phrase from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro in another context, that "the press's misunderstanding was merely the wish's predilection to be father to the thought." Perhaps a clearer understanding of the realities on the ground might have steered you away from your own wishful thinking - and one-sided spin. DRM systems can eliminate this nagging question: Should you go through the trouble of complying with copyright law, or should you just take what you want to use? by David D. Davis Jr. Utter the words "compliance with copy-right law" to librarians, or to most people for that matter, and you may justsee them reach for the antacid medicine. It's not that people who reuse content don'twant to comply; it's just that the process traditionally has been less than user-friendly. But now you can save those antacid tablets for your next trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet, because digital rights management (DRM) is making compliancea whole lot easier to swallow. In fact, in my everyday work at the Copyright ClearanceCenter, I'm one of those folks trying to make digital content management morepalatable, and this undoubtedly includes DRM initiatives.DRM may be a popular new acronym on the intellectual property scene, but its coreconcept has actually been around for hundreds of years. Take for example the storyof Johann Gutenberg, the man who invented the technology to print the pope'sgrants of pardon back in the Middle Ages. Grants of pardon, known as "indulgences,"were given by the papacy for such actions as founding a monastery or going on cru-sade. As documents that promised salvation, or at least avoidance of damnation,these indulgences were very valuable, and therefore the authenticity of such a docu-ment was imperative. After all, questions needed to be answered, such as, Was aprinted indulgence authentic? Was it secure? Did the printer have the right and thepower to create and convey valid copies? Would what was bound at the printer's stillbe "binding in heaven"? Gutenberg is said to have obtained per-mission to reproduce these indulgences from the Archbishop of Mainz, the local pa-pal authority, but without disclosing all the details to him. Gutenberg's invention en-abled more than just the rapid creation of copies, it also created, at a single stroke, theissue of "rights management"--or in this case, perhaps "divine rights management."DRM today takes over where Gutenberg left off. DRM systems are a response to theheightened expectations of information professionals, among others, for more effi-cient transactional licensing of digital content. As professional consumers, librarianswant a convenient way to obtain permissions--where appropriate--in order to law-fully reuse copyrighted works. A rightsholder (e.g., author or publisher), however,might very well expect 1) to have a say over how his or her intellectual property is re-produced, and 2) to be paid any applicable royalties or license fees. DRM systems usecutting-edge technology to implement software applications that facilitate interactionsbetween users and rightsholders. DRM systems therefore attempt to meet the newneeds and expectations of both users andrightsholders of copyrighted content. DRM in the Real World What does it take, in the real world, to linkup the licensing needs of professional information consumers and the content offeringsof professional information producers? My answer, as you probably can guess by now, isDRM. Unfortunately, in the trade and professional literature, the term DRM has oftenbeen reduced to mean merely "document security" or "data protection" or (occasionally)"super-distribution." Sometimes just the payment system is referred to as the DRM. Infact, each of these pieces are component parts of a full DRM solution, as each only con-tributes to managing the relationships and transactions. To function effectively, theDRM has to understand what is being licensed (the work), who is involved in thetransaction (the parties), and the extent of the permission (the right).What is DRM, then? Although variousdefinitions are put forward, functionally speaking, digital rights management (DRM)systems are best understood as databases that streamline the complex relationshipsand transactions among rights, works, and parties.Putting our question "What is DRM?" another way: On the functional level, what sys-tems components are necessary to manage these relationships and transactions effec-tively? Our experience suggests that any meaningful solution will include each ofthese elements, to some degree: * Works-level searching (critical) * Standardized metadata tagging (option-al) * Persistent resource locator (optional) * License creation (critical) * Maintenance of rights-managementinformation (critical) * Access to usage reports (critical) * Document security (optional) * Financial transaction (critical) Ideally, then, the function of DRM isto provide licensing on the fly, as close to the point of content as possible. See the sidebar entitled "Some Companies with DRM Solutions " for a broader look at what's available. Licensing Should Be Simple End-users will sometimes ask, "Why is paying for a license necessary? Can 't we just get what we need from the Internet? " Librarians know that life in the 21st century is not so simple. The risks that an organization faces due to copyright infringement by employees can be intimidating. The constant demand for copyright sessions and workshops at nearly every library conference is good evidence of the high concern that librarians have about this issue. Think about all the instances in your own experience where non-library employees download articles or other materials off the Internet. How common is it for them to go beyond the terms of the publisher's license, and forward and re-forward that content to colleagues or even perhaps customers? Even if your library has a published copyright policy, it might not be enough to mitigate the risk of litigation from an irate author or publisher. It is therefore crucial that information professionals obtain the proper license for any content people need. Given that a grant of permission, or other license, is a sometimes necessary evil, then the route you take to acquire that licensing should be simple and direct. A few years ago, when I was the chief corporate librarian for a large computer company, I was responsible for the administration of dozens of licenses. As the information professional, I felt it was my responsibility to promote a policy of copyright compliance, especially in the (then-) emerging area of digital content. There were a lot of times I had to say "no." The point of a DRM system is to get to "yes" as directly as possible. Let's walk through a typical example of a DRM system in action: As a librarian, you search for an article and identify from its abstract that it meets your end-user's need. Perhaps you are on the publisher's Web site, or at an aggregator's site. When you click on "Purchase Full Text," the DRM kicks in and offers you the option to buy a license or to order a hard copy (or digital reprint). Fill out the online form, if the terms and cost are acceptable, and ... mission accomplished! Your article is made available to you in Adobe PDF, or the reprints are ordered and on their way. Through DRM systems currently in use,such transactional licensing is available now for common formats such as intranets,reprints, CD-ROM, mailings, magazines, Internet, photocopies, newsletters, newspaper,and textbooks. Perhaps the best way I can illustrate howDRM-facilitated licensing can make your job easier is by giving you additional exam-ples. Let's examine three scenarios: 1. As a corporate librarian, you identifyand locate a key article on a subscribersonly site that your organization 's CEO wants to present to the board of directors.Printouts or photocopies will not be suitable; instead, she wants professionalreprints. Your corporate policy also requires you to keep a license on file for thisuse of the content. Fortunately, this publisher provides you with the option you need right on its Web page. At the bottomof the article, you spot the Permissions hyperlink--it takes you to the DRM sys-tem they've chosen. You check the cost and elect to have the PDF version createdon the fly. Next you either print the PDF yourself or you opt to forward the document to a printer for high-quality printing onglossy paper. The result? Your customized reprints arrive within 2 business days, theboard is impressed, and the CEO is delighted. 2. Suppose in the example above, you arealso a content manager for the company's intranet. You have been working with your hu-man resources department and have identified several key chapters from a textbook ondiversity training, which is about to be introduced to all employees. Using the DRM sys-tem on the CD-ROM that accompanies the textbook, you are able to obtain a license Some Companies with Digital Rights Management Solutions Many companies offer portions of DRM for text publishers, as well as for other digital media. Although the vendor field is broad,all providers are not created equal. The following is a partial listing of companies offering DRM to various extents--some employ DRM solutions so you can license their content, while others sell their DRM technologies to content providers. Company Product Emphasis Web site Adobe/Glassbook Adobe Ebook Reader "Streamline paper-to-digital processes" http://www.adobe.com/epaper Alchemedia CleverContent "The leading secure display solution" http://www.alchemedia.com Aries Systems Docurights PDF Store "Pay as you go documents" http://www.docurights.com ContentGuard XrML "The catalyst for the revolution in eContent " http://www.contentguard.com/ePCS.htm Copyright Rightslink "Permissioning at the point of content " http://www.copyright.com Clearance Center Copyright Republication "Facilitating copyright compliance" http://www.copyright.com Clearance Center Licensing Service Digital World Secure online delivery "The Bertelsmann Digital Rights http://www.dwsco.com Services Management company" DigitalGoods Softlock "Unleashing the value of content " http://www.digitalgoods.com DigitalOwl KineticEdge "Package. Host. Syndicate. Sell." http://www.digitalowl.com Intertrust MetaTrust Utility "The root source of trust " http://www.intertrust.com MediaDNA Eluminator "DRM with a difference" http://www.mediadna.com Microsoft MS Reader/ "The pleasure of reading enhanced http://www.microsoft.com/reader Digital Asset Server by the benefits of technology " netLibrary Ebooks "Premier provider of electronic books" http://www.netlibrary.com Reciprocal Digital Clearing Service "Driving the content economy" http://www.contentguard.com/ePCS.htm SealedMedia Softseal "Securely selling on media on the Internet" http://www.sealedmedia.com Vyou.com Vyoufirst "Real-time, Web-based http://www.vyou.com Digital Rights Management" B that unlocks the digital version of thechapters for you, and you post a clean and cleared version of the key chapters on yourintranet site within minutes. 3. As part of a project team, the library isasked to redistribute an important and expensive market research report. Time iscritical, but the language of the license for the report specifically disallows photo-copying. The DRM system, hosted at the publisher's Web site, provides you with anelectronic copy as well as the permission to distribute it, via e-mail, to other project teammembers. In each of these examples, without theDRM to facilitate, the transaction would have taken more time, and the result would havebeen less certain. There might have been no route to "yes." DRM Could Be a Godsend for Rightsholders Rightsholders, such as authors, publish-ers, and literary agents, represent the other side of the coin in DRM systems. Rightsh-olders currently are facing tremendous pressure to respond to permissions requests at on-line speed. After all, survey data shows that professional information consumers wouldgenerally prefer to "do the right thing " and get permission for the content they repro-duce. But many end-users also report that they will only obtain permission if it is quickand easy to do so. "End-users will some-times ask, `Why is paying for a license necessary? Can't we just get what we need from the Internet?'" DRM gives rightsholders the tools theyneed to handle your licensing requests quickly. Contemporary DRM systems areable to handle the complex rights involved in licensing copyrighted content, including (butnot limited to) text, video, animation, audio, photographs, and streaming media. Making DRM Work for You The bottom line is that full-bore DRMsystems, such as Rightslink from the CCC, have taken content licensing to a whole newlevel by further simplifying the process for libraries. Instead of needing to locate the "rights and permissions " pages buried on arightsholder's site somewhere, or to log transactions in batch mode when you'd ratherbe getting real work done, a DRM system like Rightslink brings the permissions di-rectly to you at the point of content. By implementing all of the required elements of fullDRM, these systems allow you to get your job done faster and easier while providingyour library with a mechanism for copyright compliance. It even allows you to track yourlicensing history and billing information online whenever you want, from wherever youneed to. With studies indicating that libraries areusing an ever-greater proportion of digital content (vs. print media), there has neverbeen a greater need for DRM technology. The complexity of administering this web ofrelationships is what makes rights management a field that's not for those who are faintof heart or new to the game. But as good digital rights management systems are emerg-ing, obtaining permissions will hopefully stop being viewed as a "necessary evil." B David D. Davis Jr., a sales engineer at the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), has nearly 20 years of experience in content and intellectual property management. Prior to joining the CCC, he held directorships in several corporate and public libraries. At the Copyright Clearance Center, he initiated a digital rights permissioning service, the Electronic Course Content Service (ECCS), which facilitates distance learning and corporate training initiatives. He is currently responsible for tracking, monitoring, and evaluating trends in the management, protection, and distribution of digital content. He has published several articles on rights management, and delivered presentations to the Special Libraries Association (SLA), Association of Information and Dissemination Centers (ASIDIC), the Grey Literature Conference, and other information organizations. He holds two master's degrees, one in library science and the other in history, and is a long-standing member of SLA. His email address is ddavis@copyright.com. Further Sources of Information on DRM Yahoo! (updated list of companies and products) http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/ Computers/Security_and_Encryption/Digital_Rights_Management__DRM_/ Seybold Report on Internet Publishing http://www.seyboldreports.com/SRIP/about.html Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com) also carries regular coverage of company news and updated information in the DRM industry, and a wide collection of resources. This article is reprinted in its entirety from the June 2001 issue of Computers in Libraries, with the permission of Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055, 609/654-6266, Web Site: http://www.infotoday.com. April 16, 2007 The Death of Web Radio? Olga Kharif On April 16, right in the midst of the NAB2007 broadcasters conference, the Copyright Royalty Board upheld its earlier decision to impose higher royalty rates on Web radio stations. The stations will have to cough up these royalty payments 300% to 1,200% higher than the fees they are used to paying -- retroactively. Unless Congress gets involved, that will mean the death of many Web radio stations, whose revenues will fall short of these royalty payments. But larger companies not currently thought of as broadcasters will suffer as well: Today, the CRB clarified that its decision applies not only to Web-based radio stations, but also to any company broadcasting music over cellular networks. That means that its decision can be applied very broadly. In effect, the CRB has imposed high royalties, payable to a company formed by music labels, on everyone from Mercora, which allows users to download its radio-playing software onto smartphones for listening to Webcasts via cellular, to music services powered by wireless carriers themselves. Until now, these carriers have negotiated for royalty rates with individual content owners directly. These business arrangements have not been disclosed, but there is a chance that the telcos payments will now increase. Now that the CRB decision affects not just the little guys Webcasters but also some of the telecom worlds giants, that makes me more sure than ever that Congress will have to get involved before the decision goes into effect May 15. Remember, Congress got involved in figuring out what fair and reasonable rates were the last time the royalty rates were renegotiated. Now, there are enough small and large Webcasters out there wireless and Web-based -- to claim legislators' attention. Already, today, a number of broadcasters kicked off SaveNetRadio.org grassroots campaign. I wouldnt be surprised if telcos join in this effort. 04:55 PM Web radio Trackback Pings TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6217.1412812853 Comments maybe web radio should just give up on the major labels. there is so much good recorded music in the world that is not on a major label, why should we continue to pander to the suits that push the garbage that they do? the time of the big record company is over and they just don't get it. stop being an end-cap shopper. look around you. there is plenty of good art happening all around you that you could support. oh, i almost forgot, most of you think of artists as some sort of servant rather than a worker who persists in creating works through toil. Posted by: mark at April 17, 2007 02:48 AM The industry would have an easier time pulling the wool over people's eyes if they didn't get greedy with stipulations like retroactive royalties. Posted by: emceay at April 17, 2007 02:55 AM Leave it to these people to legislate something to death. Why do they feel the need to kill something in the name of preservation? Answer: greed. I don't listen to internet radio much, and it appears I'll be listening even less. Thanks a lot, fellas... Posted by: morris at April 17, 2007 08:18 AM I definitely agree with the comment about ditching the major labels. However, I will point out that the major labels are peforming a service that I don't see being done elsewhere - the small labels don't appear to turn anyone down due to their work not yet being good enough, and the fully independant have no review whatsoever. I grant that the major labels aren't flawless - probably over 90% of what they pass fairs very poorly on the market. However, writing music takes a lot of skill and practice - my first attempt at composing was so horrid that I never made a second. I have heard independants that sounded almost as bad as that first attempt. The good ones *are* out there - but there's so many bad ones, it's tough to find the good ones. I personally think it would be awesome if a group of people would get together in an organized manner and produce lists of what they think the good stuff is. Note that I'm not talking about people simply publishing their playlists - showing the world everything at least one member of the group likes. I'm talking about something a bit more selective - listing only those things that a majority of the group likes. There could be an organization out there which is doing that already - but I haven't seen it. Posted by: Ed at April 17, 2007 09:53 AM Re: Listening to small-time artists. There isn't that choice, for the collection authority is involved by default. Only acts that have explicitally given permission, or arranged a deal with that particular station will be playable. There is some good free stuff out there (check out http://irate.sourceforge.net/), but really the best stuff is small-label mainstream. Ie. bands who have professional marketting. Even if bands, promoters, and stations are all willing to cut a better deal, the transaction costs involved (in time and effort, as well as cash) means that it simply won't happen to a sufficient extent as to create a music scene. Now the best you'll have is online small labels, scatted across the net. Afficionados only. Posted by: Tim Wesson at April 17, 2007 10:08 AM I used to find out about new music to buy, when I heard it on the radio. Then over the years radio stations started playing only music from tiny lists. My Wife asked me a few years ago why we never hear the music we buy and play at home, on the radio. I shifted to Internet radio because that was the only place I could hear much of the music produced today. Now they want to kill that. I am very puzzled. If I was a musician I would be very angry as now few will hear what I play. This makes no sense to me. Who are they protecting? I won't buy it if I don't know it exists, and killing Internet radio will go a long ways toward keeping most music a secret. Perhaps Global Warming has affected their brains? Posted by: Steve Hawkins at April 17, 2007 11:02 AM November 11, 2011 DeKalb Avenue Arrives, Tourists and All By CHRISTIAN L. WRIGHT DEPENDING on the time of day, DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn can look like a sepia-toned photograph from the 19th century, a chic international playground, or, at its best, the New York City melting pot at a nice, gentle simmer. And plenty in between: lately, for instance, the TV show “Pan Am” has been filming on this avenue near Fort Greene Park. The other Tuesday afternoon, a be-scarfed couple, West European expats, were finishing a late lunch at a chic cafe table just as a cacophonous group of schoolchildren were beating a path to the Good Joy Chinese restaurant for ketchup-drenched French fries in little paper takeout boxes. A well-heeled mother with an infant strapped to her chest popped into Elly’s Market to pick up a few things from shelves that were as neat as a pin. A man in his 60s casually leaned his bicycle against the front window of the Pratt Area Community Council’s storefront and, without locking up the bike, went inside. Just then a GrayLine Tours double-decker cruised slowly west along DeKalb, with tourists on the top deck, popping their heads up like baby chicks under a heat lamp. “Fort Greene has become a real global destination,” said Anthony Williams, an agent with Corcoran and a self-described Brooklyn boy who’s been living here for the most part of 30 years. “You see all the communities mingling. It’s like our own Greenwich Village.” The 10-block swath of DeKalb from St. Felix Street to Vanderbilt Avenue is anchored at the western end by Brooklyn Technical High School, the right-angled behemoth with a pointy radio tower on the roof that’s one of the country’s leading public schools. Among its alumni, it counts a NASA astronaut, at least one four-star general and “The Incredible Hulk,” a k a Lou Ferrigno. Across the street, you can see the current students making good use of Fort Greene Park, 33 rolling acres designated in 1847 as Brooklyn’s first park and redesigned 20 years later by Frederick Law Olmsted. Some groups head out in their numbered jerseys and shinguards to play soccer on the dirt pitch that’s also used by residents for fairly competitive weekend games of football. There are busy public tennis courts here, too. The park takes up four blocks of the north side of DeKalb, and rises above street level, so that its lawns and walking paths and pin oaks are a few steps up from the uneven sidewalk. The handsome brownstones standing along the south side of DeKalb, from South Elliott Place to Cumberland Street, face the park and have unobstructed views of Olmsted’s landscaping. At the end of August, the well-kept five-story house at No. 154 was sold for about $2.1 million by Aguayo & Huebener Realty, a boutique agency that opened in 1998 and specializes in Brooklyn. Roslyn Huebener, who lives just south of DeKalb, said, “I bought here 25 years ago for the beauty and for the close-knit quality of the neighborhood.” Since then, “as word spread, there’s been a steady increase in value in Fort Greene. It’s been unstoppable.” Many of the stately houses that line part of DeKalb, adding to the quiet grandeur of the tree-shaded side streets, date to the early or mid-1800s. Here and there, just to the north and just to the south of DeKalb, you’ll see pale clapboard houses or a columned front porch on a three-story wooden beauty, and get a whiff of the old South. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated this part of Fort Greene as a historic district in 1978, inhibiting demolition and development and keeping local artisans — chimney builders, iron casters, plaster workers — very busy. At the southeastern corner of the park on Saturdays, the Fort Greene Greenmarket sprouts up and extends a block north along Washington Place. Farther east as DeKalb becomes more commercial, storefronts are occupied by small shops like Thirst Wine Merchants (No. 187) and restaurants like Dino (No. 222), while many of the residential buildings on the avenue have been divided into apartments, from top-floor garret to basement warren. Ten years ago, when Darrell Cooper, a consultant in the legal field for electronic recovery, bought his studio apartment at No. 181, he paid $39,000 cash. “I started looking in Manhattan but pricing was insane,” said Mr. Cooper, 42. “I had friends here. I liked it. It was diverse — and I do mean in race and age — with a lot going on. This spot was reachable and attainable.” The building has since gone co-op and embarked upon significant capital improvements. Mr. Cooper, who bought two more units, is now the board president of the 181-183 DeKalb Owners Corporation. He may have to decamp to the West Coast for a new job, so he has reluctantly been talking to his broker, Carolyn Romberg of the Corcoran Group. She said he could list the original studio for $225,000. That’s just shy of six times his investment (not counting the rental income). Meanwhile, the business boom on the avenue is added value, as they like to say in marketing circles. From Cumberland Street to Vanderbilt Avenue, the concentrated array of restaurants would make Danny Meyer lick his chops. The list includes Madiba, a South A June 6, 2010 Democrats Are Skipping Town Halls to Avoid Voter Rage By JEFF ZELENY BEL AIR, Md. — The reception that Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., a Democrat, received here one night last week as he faced a small group of constituents was far more pleasant than his encounters during a Congressional recess last summer. Then, he was hanged in effigy by protesters. This time, a round of applause was followed by a glass of chilled wine, a plate of crackers and crudités as he mingled with an invitation-only audience at the Point Breeze Credit Union, a vastly different scene than last year’s wide-open televised free-for-alls. The sentiment that fueled the rage during those Congressional forums is still alive in the electorate. But the opportunities for voters to openly express their displeasure, or angrily vent as video cameras roll, have been harder to come by in this election year. If the time-honored tradition of the political meeting is not quite dead, it seems to be teetering closer to extinction. Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the House, only a handful held town-hall-style forums as legislators spent last week at home in their districts. It was no scheduling accident. With images of overheated, finger-waving crowds still seared into their minds from the discontent of last August, many Democrats heeded the advice of party leaders and tried to avoid unscripted question-and-answer sessions. The recommendations were clear: hold events in controlled settings — a bank or credit union, for example — or tour local businesses or participate in community service projects. And to reach thousands of constituents at a time, without the worry of being snared in an angry confrontation with voters, more lawmakers are also taking part in a fast-growing trend: the telephone town meeting, where chances are remote that a testy exchange will wind up on YouTube. For incumbents of both parties facing challenging re-election bids, few things receive more scrutiny than how, when and where they interact with voters. Many members of Congress err on the side of being visible, but not too visible, and make only a few public appearances while they are back in their districts. In New Hampshire, where open political meetings are deeply ingrained in the state’s traditions, Representative Carol Shea-Porter’s campaign Web site had this message for visitors: “No upcoming events scheduled. Please visit us again soon!” Ms. Shea-Porter, a Democrat, attended a state convention of letter carriers on Saturday, but she did not hold a town-hall-style meeting during the Congressional recess. In 2006, when she was an underdog candidate for the House, she often showed up at the meetings of her Republican rival, Representative Jeb Bradley, to question him about Iraq. In Iowa, where voters also are accustomed to coming face to face with elected officials, Representative Leonard L. Boswell, a Democrat, provided few opportunities for voters to see him last week. His itinerary included a groundbreaking for a new law enforcement center and a renaming ceremony for a Des Moines post office. In Maryland, where Mr. Kratovil endured considerable heckling last year over the health care legislation, which he ultimately opposed, he did not hold any large gatherings with voters. After returning from a visit to Afghanistan, he held two events with veterans before arriving at an evening discussion here at the credit union in Bel Air, north of Baltimore. “It’s dramatically different this break than it was in August of last year,” Mr. Kratovil said in an interview after he finished speaking about financial regulatory legislation. “At town halls, there was a group of people who were there to disrupt, purely politically driven, not there because they wanted to get answers or discuss the issues.” Mr. Kratovil said seeing voters in their workplace, or in casual settings like soccer fields, actually provided a broader sampling of public opinion than simply holding formal town-hall-style meetings, which often attract only political activists. An examination of public schedules for dozens of members of Congress last week showed that more House Republicans held open meetings, including several in a series of forums called America Speaking Out, which is intended to help write the party’s agenda if it wins control of Congress in November. The anger that erupted at meetings last summer — focused, particularly, on the health care legislation — helped draw attention to Tea Party activists. A year later, some of the images are resurfacing once again and will almost certainly be used against lawmakers in television advertisements over the next five months. Representative Rick Boucher, a Democrat who has represented a wide part of southwestern Virginia for 28 years, has often encountered fierce criticism during his sessions with voters. But he said it was worth listening to the critiques, which often sound nearly identical as he travels across the 23 counties of his district. “Obviously the town meetings are magnets for people who have a political agenda, but it’s worth putting up with the talking-point-induced political dialogue to get good ideas,” said Mr. Boucher, who was one of the few Democrats last week who did hold a wide-open meeting, which took place Saturday at the high school in Floyd, Va. “I guess I’m old-fashioned,” said Mr. Boucher, adding that he preferred visiting with voters in person, rather than communicating with them through “tele-town-hall” meetings, a sort of conference call that can include thousands of homes that has been on the rise since the technology was first used in 2006. “I have no plans of changing my approach to this.” Representative Tom Perriello, a first-term Virginia Democrat, held 21 open meetings last August during the heat of the health care debate. He said that each of the sessions lasted an average of five hours, often ending well after midnight. “We thought that the best strategy was to let people talk,” Mr. Perriello said. “It was important to stay until people had everything off of their minds.” Not last week. The meetings were traded for other stops in Mr. Perriello’s central Virginia district, including an elementary school that received broadband Internet through the economic stimulus plan. He also dropped by several businesses, hoping to take the pulse on what he said were the chief issues for his constituents: jobs and the economy. Without so many lengthy meetings on his agenda, he said he had more time for impromptu encounters with voters. Constituents who were following along received updated information on Twitter, including this bulletin just before lunchtime one day: “Now stopping for a hot dog at Moore’s Country Store!” June 6, 2010 Democrats Are Skipping Town Halls to Avoid Voter Rage By JEFF ZELENY BEL AIR, Md. — The reception that Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., a Democrat, received here one night last week as he faced a small group of constituents was far more pleasant than his encounters during a Congressional recess last summer. Then, he was hanged in effigy by protesters. This time, a round of applause was followed by a glass of chilled wine, a plate of crackers and crudités as he mingled with an invitation-only audience at the Point Breeze Credit Union, a vastly different scene than last year’s wide-open televised free-for-alls. The sentiment that fueled the rage during those Congressional forums is still alive in the electorate. But the opportunities for voters to openly express their displeasure, or angrily vent as video cameras roll, have been harder to come by in this election year. If the time-honored tradition of the political meeting is not quite dead, it seems to be teetering closer to extinction. Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the House, only a handful held town-hall-style forums as legislators spent last week at home in their districts. It was no scheduling accident. With images of overheated, finger-waving crowds still seared into their minds from the discontent of last August, many Democrats heeded the advice of party leaders and tried to avoid unscripted question-and-answer sessions. The recommendations were clear: hold events in controlled settings — a bank or credit union, for example — or tour local businesses or participate in community service projects. And to reach thousands of constituents at a time, without the worry of being snared in an angry confrontation with voters, more lawmakers are also taking part in a fast-growing trend: the telephone town meeting, where chances are remote that a testy exchange will wind up on YouTube. For incumbents of both parties facing challenging re-election bids, few things receive more scrutiny than how, when and where they interact with voters. Many members of Congress err on the side of being visible, but not too visible, and make only a few public appearances while they are back in their districts. In New Hampshire, where open political meetings are deeply ingrained in the state’s traditions, Representative Carol Shea-Porter’s campaign Web site had this message for visitors: “No upcoming events scheduled. Please visit us again soon!” Ms. Shea-Porter, a Democrat, attended a state convention of letter carriers on Saturday, but she did not hold a town-hall-style meeting during the Congressional recess. In 2006, when she was an underdog candidate for the House, she often showed up at the meetings of her Republican rival, Representative Jeb Bradley, to question him about Iraq. In Iowa, where voters also are accustomed to coming face to face with elected officials, Representative Leonard L. Boswell, a Democrat, provided few opportunities for voters to see him last week. His itinerary included a groundbreaking for a new law enforcement center and a renaming ceremony for a Des Moines post office. In Maryland, where Mr. Kratovil endured considerable heckling last year over the health care legislation, which he ultimately opposed, he did not hold any large gatherings with voters. After returning from a visit to Afghanistan, he held two events with veterans before arriving at an evening discussion here at the credit union in Bel Air, north of Baltimore. “It’s dramatically different this break than it was in August of last year,” Mr. Kratovil said in an interview after he finished speaking about financial regulatory legislation. “At town halls, there was a group of people who were there to disrupt, purely politically driven, not there because they wanted to get answers or discuss the issues.” Mr. Kratovil said seeing voters in their workplace, or in casual settings like soccer fields, actually provided a broader sampling of public opinion than simply holding formal town-hall-style meetings, which often attract only political activists. An examination of public schedules for dozens of members of Congress last week showed that more House Republicans held open meetings, including several in a series of forums called America Speaking Out, which is intended to help write the party’s agenda if it wins control of Congress in November. The anger that erupted at meetings last summer — focused, particularly, on the health care legislation — helped draw attention to Tea Party activists. A year later, some of the images are resurfacing once again and will almost certainly be used against lawmakers in television advertisements over the next five months. Representative Rick Boucher, a Democrat who has represented a wide part of southwestern Virginia for 28 years, has often encountered fierce criticism during his sessions with voters. But he said it was worth listening to the critiques, which often sound nearly identical as he travels across the 23 counties of his district. “Obviously the town meetings are magnets for people who have a political agenda, but it’s worth putting up with the talking-point-induced political dialogue to get good ideas,” said Mr. Boucher, who was one of the few Democrats last week who did hold a wide-open meeting, which took place Saturday at the high school in Floyd, Va. “I guess I’m old-fashioned,” said Mr. Boucher, adding that he preferred visiting with voters in person, rather than communicating with them through “tele-town-hall” meetings, a sort of conference call that can include thousands of homes that has been on the rise since the technology was first used in 2006. “I have no plans of changing my approach to this.” Representative Tom Perriello, a first-term Virginia Democrat, held 21 open meetings last August during the heat of the health care debate. He said that each of the sessions lasted an average of five hours, often ending well after midnight. “We thought that the best strategy was to let people talk,” Mr. Perriello said. “It was important to stay until people had everything off of their minds.” Not last week. The meetings were traded for other stops in Mr. Perriello’s central Virginia district, including an elementary school that received broadband Internet through the economic stimulus plan. He also dropped by several businesses, hoping to take the pulse on what he said were the chief issues for his constituents: jobs and the economy. Without so many lengthy meetings on his agenda, he said he had more time for impromptu encounters with voters. Constituents who were following along received updated information on Twitter, including this bulletin just before lunchtime one day: “Now stopping for a hot dog at Moore’s Country Store!” CNET News InSecurity Complex In SOPA's shadow, Megaupload strikes back against Universal Elinor Mills by Elinor Mills December 15, 2011 5:31 PM PST A host of hip-hop musicians and celebrities appear in the Megaupload video that Universal Music Group says violates copyright. A host of hip-hop musicians and celebrities, including Ciara, appear in the Megaupload video that Universal Music Group says violates copyright. (Credit: Megaupload) ' While Congress debates the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a real-world copyright dispute has been unraveling with a major music conglomerate flexing its muscle against an online content hosting company based in Hong Kong. Megaupload posted a promo video for its online hosting and file transfer service on YouTube on Friday and Universal Music Group quickly had it removed for alleged copyright violation. The video features Kanye West, Puff Daddy, Snoop Dogg, Jamie Foxx, Mary J. Blige, and others voicing, and even singing, their support for the service. UMG claimed some of the artists had not consented to appearing in the video and including them violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Megaupload filed a counter-notice with YouTube and sued UMG (PDF) on Monday for misrepresentation of copyright infringement, requesting a temporary restraining order (PDF) to prevent the entertainment company from barring distribution or display of the video. Federal District Court Judge Claudia Wilken said she would give UMG until today to respond. A court clerk told CNET this afternoon that there had been no new order issued. "Megaupload has already suffered substantial harm as a result of UMG's wrongful interruption of its promotional campaign," the court documents filed by lawyers for Megaupload say. "Hundreds of thousands, and likely millions, of persons who are attempting to connect to a video promoting Megaupload in a positive light are instead being diverted to screens that, as a result of UMG's notices, falsely describe the video as copyright infringement." While the original video and embedded versions of the Megaupload video were not accessible, a copy of the Megaupload video that indicates it was uploaded on Friday was online this afternoon, but it was not posted by a Megaupload account. The UMG takedown order applies to any copy of the video, but somehow the filters on YouTube designed to keep allegedly pirated content off the site were not catching it. Meanwhile, UMG also had ordered that Monday's episode of the "Tech News Today" show on Twit.tv be pulled from YouTube too because two clips of the Megaupload video were played during a discussion of the copyright battle between Megaupload and UMG. Show host Tom Merritt has disputed the takedown order, saying the site's use of a few clips during a journalistic program was fair use. However, Merritt said he noticed that the Tech News Today episode was back up on YouTube earlier today. "I have no idea why. I didn't get any notice," he told CNET in an interview tonight. Yesterday, Merritt had tweeted: "YouTube wait 10 days to see if Universal will file a court order against us before they restore the show. Not ideal for daily news." In response, Matt Cutts, a Google engineer, tweeted: "Not sure if it will help, and it's not my area, but I poked a few people about this internally. Sorry for the bad experience. :(" As a result of UMG's action, Merritt's episode lost about three days worth of news cycle and monetization on YouTube. "I find the DMCA process extremely frustrating because I am guilty until proven innocent in this situation," he said. Megauploader founder Kim Dotcom said in a court filing (PDF) that apparently UMG had assumed that Gin Wigmore's voice was on the video, but in fact it was Macy Gray singing instead. In addition, the document provided a copy of an agreement signed by singer Will Adams, known as Will.i.am, on whose behalf a lawyer had incorrectly filed a take-down notice. "We have a one-to-one agreement with every single person who is manifested in that video, whether they are speaking or singing or just appearing," Ira Rothken, a San Francisco-based attorney who is representing Megaupload, told CNET today. "We have broad releases with each of the stars." He accused UMG of "gaming the DMCA system to chill free speech." Neither UMG representatives nor their attorneys could not be reached for comment. Related Links Megaupload settles copyright suit with porn studio The mystery man behind Megaupload piracy fight SOPA votes derailed by politician's 'offensive' tweet The back and forth on the Megaupload video comes as the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sided with the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry of America and approved SOPA. Designed to respond to the rise of offshore "rogue" Web sites that distribute pirated movies, songs, and other copyrighted material, SOPA would allow the attorney general to seek a court order against the target Web site that would then be served on Internet providers in an effort to shut down the site. While the MPAA and RIAA say the measure is needed to prevent rampant online piracy, legal scholars and technologists argue that it could suppress free speech by in effect deleting Web sites accused of copyright infringement. The Megaupload-UMG situation illustrates how giant content owners could overstep their authority at the expense of free speech if SOPA becomes law, according to Rothken. "There's a lot of SOPA crossover from what UMG is doing against Megaupload," he said. "It shows the abuse that could happen under some of the proposed SOPA rules by giving power to Hollywood to act as judge and jury as to whether or not something ought to be considered a disagreeable Web site. Here, clearly, UMG should not be given that kind of power because it appears as though they are abusing the system." Updated 6:28 p.m. PT with comment from Merritt and Tech News Episode back up on YouTube and 5:50 p.m. PT with background on legal case. Elinor Mills Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. Timothy Leary really screwed things up for science. By abandoning the scientific method for a mystical embrace of hallucinogenic drugs, the Harvard-professor-turned-LSD-evangelist became a symbol of ’60s-era drug-fueled degeneracy. Worse, the ensuing backlash pushed these drugs underground and caused an enormously promising field of research to go dormant for nearly half a century. Or so say some scientists who met in Oakland, California last weekend for a conference on the science and therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs. “The antics of Timothy Leary really undermined the scientific approach to studying these compounds,” psychopharmacologist Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University told the audience. But the times they are a-changin’. In recent years, a small cadre of scientists has cautiously rekindled the scientific study of psychedelics. At the conference, they reported new findings on how these drugs scramble brain activity in ways that might help explain their mind-bending effects. They’re also slowly building a case that these drugs might help people with depression, anxiety and other disorders. Roughly a dozen small clinical trials are now underway worldwide. But the idea isn’t “take two tabs of acid and call me in the morning.” Instead, these trials are testing the idea that psychedelics taken in a therapist’s office as part of a series of psychotherapy sessions can make talk therapy more effective. 'The illegality of these drugs ... is one of the greatest scandals in modern research' “Now that we’ve been able to start getting some evidence on the benefits, it changes people’s calculus,” said Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), one of the meeting’s sponsors. Doblin and MAPS have been battling regulators since the mid-80s to allow research and clinical trials with psychedelics. The recent revival of psychedelic science may be one sign their efforts are finally paying off. Public attitudes towards illegal drugs in general may be shifting. A recent Pew Research Center survey, for example, found for the first time that more than half of Americans think marijuana should be legal. Baby boomers in particular, who may have hidden their stash while raising kids, seem to be loosening up in their old age, the survey found. The interest in psychedelics may also have something to do with a growing sense of frustration over the lack of promising new psychiatric drugs in the pipeline. Many of the current drugs are based on compounds discovered serendipitously in the 1950s, and true innovation has been so hard to come by that many companies are giving up. Meanwhile, people have been using hallucinogens for centuries, often in religious healing ceremonies, and yes, sometimes just for the hell of it. But just because they’re party drugs for some doesn’t mean they can’t be the subject of serious scientific inquiry. Or does it? After all, it didn’t end so well the first time around. From its inception in 2010, the Psychedelic Science meeting has brought together an interesting mix of people. A record 1,800 of them attended this year. The prevalence of ponytails, nose rings and hemp accessories is predictably higher than at a typical science conference. There was also a tea lounge, a psychedelic art gallery, and a quiet room for anyone in need of riding out a rough trip. “Absolutely some scientists would see the rainbow colors on the logo and the psychedelic art exhibits and say ‘that’s not real science,’” said Brad Burge, the communication director for MAPS. At the same time, some of the more mystically inclined devotees of psychedelics are averse to the scientific dissection of what they see as a sacred experience, Burge says. The conference isn’t for the folks at those ends of the spectrum. Burge acknowledges there’s a tricky balancing act involved in hosting a forum for scientists who want their work to be taken seriously without excluding those who use psychedelic drugs recreationally. Even so, “we’re trying to get around the idea that there has to be a separation,” he said. After all, this latter group helps fund much of the research through their donations to MAPS and other private organizations like the Heffter Research Institute and Beckley Foundation. Government funders like the National Institutes of Health are still skittish about psychedelic research. Ayahuasca. Image: Awkipuma/Wikimedia Commons This year’s conference showcased one area of research that’s exploded recently. It involves ayahuasca, a potent hallucinogenic brew of vines and leaves used in healing ceremonies by Amazonian shamans (as well as tourists — a pamphlet included in the conference swag bag advertised one center offering ayahuasca retreats). Dráulio Barros de Araújo, a neuroscientist at the Brain Institute at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, presented new findings from an fMRI brain scan study with 10 experienced ayahuasca users, followers of Santo Daime, a spiritual practice that uses the brew. Araújo’s team found that ayahuasca reduces neural activity in something called the default mode network, an web of interconnected brain regions that fire up whenever people aren’t focused on any specific task. It’s active when people daydream or let their minds wander, for example. The default mode network has been a hot topic in neuroscience in recent years. Scientists don’t really know what it does, but they love to speculate. One interpretation is that activity in this network may represent what we experience as our internal monologue and may help generate our sense of self. Last year, British scientists reported that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, like ayahuasca, reduces activity in the brain’s default mode network. The researchers proposed that interfering with the default network could be how psychedelic drugs cause what users often describe as a disintegration of the self, or even a sense of oneness with the universe. Robin Carhart-Harris, the neuroscientist who led the psilocybin study, reported new findings at the conference from a study that used a method called magnetoencephalography, which tracks brain activity with better time resolution than fMRI does. The results suggest psilocybin affects not only the default mode network, but also disrupts a certain type of rhythmic brain activity. 'This opens a door to the scientific study of mystical experience' Individual subjects who experienced more of this desychronization while on the drug tended to report a greater subjective sense of disintegration. ”For me this is the most interesting observation of the lot,” Carhart-Harris said. “Our sense of self, the sense of being someone, really is a kind of an illusion. All we are is a product of our brain activation.” Eroding the sense of self may be one way hallucinogens produce what many users experience as profound spiritual insights. In 2008 Griffiths and his team at Johns Hopkins reported that the majority of 36 ordinary people who took psilocybin for the first time in an 8-hour session in his lab still regarded the experience as one of the five most personally meaningful events of their lives more than a year later. Two-thirds of them rated it among their top five spiritual experiences. “It seemed so improbable to me when we started that they’d compare this to birth of a child or death of a parent,” he said at the conference. More recently, Griffiths surveyed 1,600 recreational psilocybin and found that 40 percent ranked the experience in their top five most personally meaningful. The somewhat lower percentage isn’t surprising, Griffith says, because in the lab he and his colleagues went out of their way to make the environment as positive and comfortable as possible. But he’s encouraged that the results seem to generalize. Psilocybin. Image: Jynto/Wikimedia Commons “This opens a door to the scientific study of mystical experiences,” Griffiths said. In future work, he hopes to investigate how the psilocybin experience may differ in people with different personality types, religious backgrounds, and genetics. Clearly, drugs like psilocybin have powerful effects on the mind, but the rationale for using them in psychiatry requires a fair amount of hand waving. The same could be said of virtually all psychiatric treatments already on the market, however: Nobody really knows how they work. The classic psychedelics, including psilocybin and LSD, stimulate receptors for serotonin, a neurotransmitter that’s also targeted, albeit in different ways, by approved antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs like Prozac and Zoloft. Several scientists at the conference pointed to findings that activity in the brain’s default mode network is elevated in people with depression. Because psilocybin and ayahuasca seem to dampen activity in this network, perhaps they could help. It’s hard to connect those dots without a strong dose of speculation, but one idea is that the elevated activity in the default mode network reflects too much attention directed inward. People in the grips of depression, the thinking goes, are trapped in an endless cycle of critical self-examination, and a little neural desynchronization might help them reboot. Araújo presented promising preliminary findings on using ayahausca to reduce symptoms of depression, and he’s recently gotten approval for a larger clinical trial in Brazil. The British group has approval to begin a trial with psilocybin. Recent clinical trials Ayahuasca Depression: Brazil (upcoming) Psilocybin Depression: UK (pending), Smoking cessation: US (ongoing) MDMA PTSD: Switzerland (completed), Spain (completed), Israel (ongoing), US (ongoing), Canada (upcoming) LSD End of life anxiety: Switzerland (completed) Ibogaine Addiction: Mexico, New Zealand (ongoing) Source: MAPS/Psychedelic Science conference Meanwhile, researchers in Switzerland, Israel, and elsewhere have been investigating MDMA (more commonly known as Ecstasy) to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders. Ravers love the drug for the sense of euphoria and comfort and closeness with others it engenders. Some therapists think its anti-anxiety and pro-social effects might help put anxious patients at ease and make them more receptive to psychotherapy. MAPS is sponsoring several studies to test this idea. The first, begun in 2004 and led by psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer in South Carolina, treated 19 people with PTSD, mostly women who’d survived sexual abuse or assault. Although these patients had had little success with conventional treatments, 14 of 19 still had significant reductions in their symptoms one to six years after undergoing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, the researchers reported in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in November. Another trial underway in South Carolina is testing the therapy in military veterans, police and firefighters, and Doblin says MAPS has been talking with the Pentagon about a study involving active duty soldiers with PTSD. MAPS is willing to pay for it if the Pentagon will allow the soldiers to participate. “We were there about a month ago, and we got a very good reception,” he said. “Now we’re working our way up the chain of command.” The fact that the US military would even consider such a thing is a sign of how much things have changed. But that’s not to say there’s no resistance left. Psychedelic scientists still face obstacles at every step of the process, from getting research funding, to getting the compounds themselves, to publishing the findings, says psychiatrist David Nutt of Imperial College London. Nutt recently won a large grant from the British government to conduct a clinical trial of psilocybin for depression. But red tape is holding it up. To comply with the law, Nutt has to find a manufacturer who’s capable of making medical-grade psilocybin and has all the proper permits to make controlled substances. So far, he hasn’t found one. The study is on hold. “The illegality of these drugs has profoundly distorted research and continues to do so,” Nutt said at the conference. “It’s one of the greatest scandals in modern research.” In Web Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads Wildly By BRAD STONE Correction Appended SAN FRANCISCO, May 2 — There is open revolt on the Web. Sophisticated Internet users have banded together over the last two days to publish and widely distribute a secret code used by the technology and movie industries to prevent piracy of high-definition movies. The broader distribution of the code may not pose a serious threat to the studios, because it requires some technical expertise and specialized software to use it to defeat the copy protection on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. But its relentless spread has already become a lesson in mob power on the Internet and the futility of censorship in the digital world. An online uproar came in response to a series of cease-and-desist letters from lawyers for a group of companies that use the copy protection system, demanding that the code be removed from several Web sites. Rather than wiping out the code — a string of 32 digits and letters in a specialized counting system — the legal notices sparked its proliferation on Web sites, in chat rooms, inside cleverly doctored digital photographs and on user-submitted news sites like Digg.com. “It’s a perfect example of how a lawyer’s involvement can turn a little story into a huge story,” said Fred von Lohmann, a staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group. “Now that they started sending threatening letters, the Internet has turned the number into the latest celebrity. It is now guaranteed eternal fame.” The number is being enshrined in some creative ways. Keith Burgon, a 24-year-old musician in Goldens Bridge, N.Y., grabbed his acoustic guitar on Tuesday and improvised a melody while soulfully singing the code. He posted the song to YouTube, where it was played more than 45,000 times. “I thought it was a source of comedy that they were trying so futilely to quell the spread of this number,” Mr. Burgon said. “The ironic thing is, because they tried to quiet it down it’s the most famous number on the Internet.” During his work break on Tuesday, James Bertelson, an engineer in Vancouver, Wash., joined the movement and created a Web page featuring nothing but the number, obscured in an encrypted format that only insiders could appreciate. He then submitted his page to Digg, a news site where users vote on what is important. Despite its sparse offerings, his submission received nearly 5,000 votes and was propelled onto Digg’s main page. “For most people this is about freedom of speech, and an industry that thinks that just because it has high-priced lawyers it has the final say,” Mr. Bertelson said. Messages left for those lawyers and the trade organization they represent, the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, which controls the encryption system known as A.A.C.S., were not answered. In an e-mail message, a representative for the group said only that it “is looking into the matter and has no further comment at this time.” The organization is backed by technology companies like I.B.M., Intel, Microsoft and Sony and movie studios like Disney and Warner Brothers, which is owned by Time Warner. The secret code actually stopped being a secret in February, when a hacker ferreted it out of his movie-playing software and posted it on a Web bulletin board. From there it spread through the network of technology news sites and blogs. Last month, lawyers for the trade group began sending out cease-and-desist letters, claiming that Web pages carrying the code violated its intellectual property rights under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One letter was sent to Google, which runs a blog network at blogspot.com. The campaign to remove the number from circulation went largely unnoticed until news of the letters hit Digg. The 25-employee company in San Francisco, acting on the advice of its lawyers, removed posting submissions about the secret number from its database earlier this week, then explained the move to its readers on Tuesday afternoon. The removals were seen by many Digg users as a capitulation to corporate interests and an assault on free speech. Some also said that the trade group that promotes the HD-DVD format, which uses A.A.C.S. protection, had advertised on a weekly Digg-related video podcast. On Tuesday afternoon and into the evening, stories about or including the code swamped Digg’s main page, which the company says gets 16 million readers each month. At 9 p.m. West Coast time, the company surrendered to mob sentiment. “You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company,” wrote Kevin Rose, Digg’s founder, in a blog post. “We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.” If Digg loses, he wrote, “at least we died trying.” Jay Adelson, Digg’s chief executive, said in an interview that the site was disregarding the advice of its lawyers. “We just decided that it is more important to stand by our users,” he said. Regarding the company’s exposure to lawsuits he said, “we are just going to prepare and do our best.” The conflict spilled over to Wikipedia, where administrators had to restrict editing on some entries to keep contributors from repeatedly posting the code. The episode recalls earlier acts of online rebellion against the encryption that protects media files from piracy. Some people believe that such systems unfairly limit their freedom to listen to music and watch movies on whatever devices they choose. In 1999, hackers created a program called DeCSS that broke the software protecting standard DVDs and posted it on the hacker site 2600.com. The Motion Picture Association of America sued, and Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, citing the 1998 digital copyright act, sided with the movie industry. The DVD code disappeared from the 2600 site, but nevertheless resurfaced in playful haiku, on T-shirts and even in a movie in which the code scrolled across the screen like the introductory crawl in “Star Wars.” In both cases, the users who joined the revolt and published the codes may be exposing themselves to legal risk. Chris Sprigman, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said that under the digital copyright act, propagating even parts of techniques intended to circumvent copyright was illegal. However, with thousands of Internet users now impudently breaking the law, Mr. Sprigman said that the entertainment and technology industries would have no realistic way to pursue a legal remedy. “It’s a gigantic can of worms they’ve opened, and now it will be awfully hard to do anything with lawsuits,” he said. Correction: May 4, 2007 A front-page article yesterday about an online revolt against efforts by a trade organization to remove a secret antipiracy code from the Web erroneously included one Web site among those that received requests to remove the code. Wikipedia did not receive such a letter. Conversations: DRM Is Theft: New Yorkers for Fair Use Go to Washington Posted on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 by Ruben I Safir Here's what really happened at the meeting they're saying we "disrupted". On July 17th, 2002, New Yorkers for Fair Use and NYLXS (New York Linux Scene), with help from the Free Software Foundation, took political action at the Department of Commerce, which was holding its second Digital Rights Management (DRM) Workshop. New Yorkers for Fair Use spearheaded the effort to bring public opinion to the meeting in a reasonable and effective manner. We are happy to announce that all of our goals were met and even exceeded by this action, without disrupting the normal activities of the meeting. It was our goal to have a voice and participate in the democratic process and not to disrupt it entirely. Prior to the meeting in Washington DC, I, as President of NYLXS and cofounder of NY Fair Use, was attending the Libre Software Meeting in Bordeaux, France, at the request of the French Free Software movement. Upon arriving in France, I checked my e-mail and found a message from Seth Johnson, Secretary of NY Fair Use. His message outlined the Commerce Department's announcement of the workshop, including a list of participants, and asked if NY Fair Use wanted to attend the meeting. The meeting was scheduled to take place the day after I arrived back in New York, about a week from then. I was reluctant to schedule a trip to Washington DC so soon after arriving home, but the meeting appeared to be too good of a target for the NY Fair use agenda to pass up. It would give us an opportunity to speak face to face with most of our chief opponents, including the likeable and articulate Jack Valenti of the MPAA, the RIAA and several industrial leaders, including Microsoft and Intel. So I told Seth I would go and assigned him the duty of preparing everyone for the trip. Once the decision was made to go ahead with the plan, several goals were agreed upon by the NY for Fair Use management, including Seth, cofounder Brett Wynkoop, Jay Sulzberger, our general public relations manager, and myself. NYLXS also geared into action by providing network services and funding for the trip. NYLXS members, as usual, sprang into action in support of the NY Fair Use activity. In particular, Micheal Richardson, the NYLXS Membership Chairman and Journal Editor, designed buttons and helped drive everyone down to Washington. Kevin Mark contributed to the PR material, Vinnie alerted as much of the press as possible and Joe Maffia offered technical support. Even with large numbers of NYLXS on vacation, the organization worked admirably according to its charter, to support and educate the public about issues that affect Free Software in business, education and the home. The first agenda item was to get us representation on the panel, specifically by including myself as a panel representative. Although I was in France and cut off from many of the Washington connections that have nurtured us over the last few years, NY Fair Use was petitioning for a place on the panel from the start. We had Sarah Brown of the EFF in Washington who put Seth Johnson in contact with Chris Israel inside the Commerce Department. Seth Johnson also tried to contact Congressman Weiner's office in an effort to bring some Congressional pressure to the matter. But with the limited time frame and our chief advocate in Europe, we were not able to get representation on the board. Ultimately, NY Fair Use had to fall back on our secondary plan, to participate as members of the audience. Resigned to being limited to audience participation, we now opened the discussion to a new mailing list created by Seth for the purposes of organizing this action in Washington. The first order of business was to produce proper slogans for our goals. One goal of NYLXS is to change the whole lexicon of the DRM and Copyright discussion. We feel that certain messages need to be brought to the public and the press to assure our future success, not only in this battle over DRM, but also in a wide variety of copyright and fair use issues that have trickled into the public eye over the last few years. We decided, after much discussion and after considering many opinions on the mailing lists, to attempt to drive into the public lexicon the phrases, "DRM is Theft" and "We are the Stakeholders". We carefully chose these expressions to counter the rhetoric coming out of the copyright monopoly content industry, especially the claim by Senator Hollings that he had assembled all the "stakeholders" to write his CBDTPA bill and Jack Valenti's rhetoric that the simple act of listening to a DVD on a GNU/Linux operating system is stealing property from the motion picture industry. The next stage of planning fell into the lap of Seth Johnson, who mobilized NYLXS and NY Fair Use for the practical matters of making the trip. Fortunately, today NYLXS is a well-oiled machine. We are quite proud of the volunteer spirit of the organization and its ability to deliver when called upon. Joe Maffia found us a minibus for the trip down. Seth Johnson offered use of his credit cards to get the truck. Michael Richardson volunteered to drive everyone to DC. Brett Wynkoop oversaw all the system administrations and coordination duties needed to keep everyone in touch. Jay Sulzberger wrote up a terrific position paper for the trip and a media guide. Vinnie contacted nearly every press contact he could find with information about the trip. Members of every political background came from every part of the city to make the trip. NYLXS has become very effective at organizing events. They are motivated, proactive and competent. Meanwhile in France, Richard Stallman and I reviewed the political strategy for the action over wine. We agreed to a joint effort of the FSF and NY for Fair Use groups, and we even planned backup contingencies, including how to hold a protest outside of the building if we were not allowed into the conference room. One of the ideas we knocked around was showing up with steaks, as in meat, to drive home the message that the public are the stakeholders on copyright monopoly matters. However, time would not allow us to coordinate the efforts. They are still on the table for future political actions. With Richard and my arrivals home to the States, all the pieces were in place for a successful run at changing the direction of the DRM discussion. The afternoon I returned to New York, I touched base with Seth and made certain the arrangements for the van were in place and that everyone was clear about the time and place we were to meet. Having picked up the truck, we decided to have one final planning session. Because we were leaving at 4 in the morning to get to DC on time for a meeting with the media at 10AM, everyone assembled rather early in Flatbush. Brett left with his own car from Park Slope in Brooklyn and we stayed in touch on the road. In the minibus we had Michael Richardson, Jay Sulzberger, Seth Johnson, Vinnie, Forrest Mars, Murray, Kevin Marks and myself. Nearly everyone was dressed in a suit and tie. The drive down to Washington went smoothly, and we met with media guru Eric Hensal at the Corner Bakery in the Press Club building, a few blocks from the Commerce Department Building. Eric gave NY Fair Use great media tips on how to be seen by the press, in addition to a packet with vital press contacts both in the building and across town. Forrest Mars ran our Media Alert through the building, while Richard Stallman met with us at the bakery with copies of the flyers. Richard and I had spent most of the night dotting polishing the press release by phone and e-mail. Vinnie ran off more copies. Brett and Kevin ran down to the Commerce Department Building to scout out the conditions. As it turned out, this was critical because the Department of Commerce was convinced that they could close the meeting to the public. Brett's charm and rhetoric convinced the panel that they couldn't close the workshop. By the time we were ready to actually go to the meeting, the Panel had rolled out the red carpet for NY Fair Use, giving us an escort up to the 4th Floor. Finally, at about 12:30 PM, Richard, Seth, Kevin and I marched to the Commerce Department building, with the rest coming later. I handed out our flyers and met with several friends in the press and with other organizations aligned with us. We met with Declan McCullagh from CNet, Robin Gross of the EFF and American Library Association Representative Miriam Nisbet. We told them all of our efforts to protect libraries last year with our Save the Libraries Campaign. People lined up to meet Richard Stallman before the meeting, and eventually the rest of our group arrived at the meeting, filling up the room. We also had the pleasure of seeing many old friends from the Press including Seattle reporter Sarah Strickland and Bloomberg reporter Katherine Reynolds Lewis. As the meeting started, everyone in our group was wearing the "DRM is Theft" and "We are the Stakeholders" buttons. In fact, we almost ran out. It was not the plan of NY Fair Use in any way to disrupt the workshop panel. Neither was it the goal of the organization to sit mute in the audience and make our presence felt. Our goal was to clearly participate as audience members of the panel, within the bounds of normal political discourse, as is the rule with such contentious issues. For example, as the meeting started, the Chair began by saying that he'd like to announce that nobody on the panel is a villain. This brought audible laughter from the audience. We were then quiet for the next hour. At one point, Brett Wynkoop, who couldn't find a chair and finally sat near the panel's table, raised his hand when the Chair asked if anyone else had a comment. The Chair recognized Brett, who then proceeded to announce his name and position as cofounder of NY Fair Use. The Chair tried to unrecognize him, but Brett plowed forward, within the bounds of Rogers Rules of Order, by asking the panel how they could consider regulations and laws that would turn every teenager in America with a magic marker or white-out into a felon. Brett was referring to the recent flap over the attempt by the music industry to produce DRM for audio CDs, which was quickly defeated with a single line made by a marker. Several minutes of interesting debate followed, which climaxed when one of the lawyers on the panel gave the legal opinion that the courts would never convict anyone for using a magic marker as a circumvention device, because the courts had not considered that a sufficient circumvention method under the DMCA. At this point, I asked if we can get that in writing for the next DMCA trial dealing with digital music. Everyone was jovial at this point, enjoying the open participatory democratic process unfolding before their eyes. Earlier, a schematic diagram of the current state of DRM development was presented. This alphabet soup of circles and letters was discussed for several minutes; the thing looked looked similar to a network map of the Internet. Nobody could understand a word of what was being presented, but we sat quietly and listened anyway. At the end of this part of the representation, the image on the projector was flipped, to connect the dots in complete chaos. This fitting image of the state of current DRM schemes would come back to haunt the panel as the presentation went on. NY Fair Use mostly sat quietly through the meeting, occasionally whispering to each other, until MPAA spokesman Jack Valenti took the floor. At this point, Jack elegantly said in a beautiful, self-effacing fashion, that he hopes that everyone on the panel would give him the courtesy to be heard, and then he would yield the floor to others. At that moment, Vinnie stood up and said, "How can you expect everyone to present their response to your comments when you've left off the panel the most important stakeholders, the public?". Jack then graciously said that if we let him speak without interruption (not that we seriously interrupted anyone), he would be glad to listen to Vinnie's reply. Jay Sulzberger stood up and said we all agreed. The Chair seemed to be feeling a little uncomfortable at this point, as though he was losing control of the situation. But everyone sat silently and heard Jack speak. He put on a classic Jack Valenti performance, saying that it was his position that government intervention in this matter wasn't a bad thing. He said his experience in the Johnson Administration passing the 1965 Civil Rights Act showed him how important and good proper government intervention can be. He then continued by saying that it was his hope that the leaders of the IT industry and the computer field would come to a consensus in the next month on a DRM standard that would protect the property of the movie industry from theft. This caused me to whisper to Vinnie that when the floor returned to him, he should defer comment to Richard Stallman, who was the most qualified and highest ranking IT professional in the building. When Jack finished, the Chair reluctantly deferred to Jack's wishes and gave the floor to Vinnie. Vinnie then identified himself as a member of NY Fair Use and asked to defer the answer the Richard. Richard stood up, but the Chair didn't let him talk, in violation of the rules of order. Instead he said, "We've already accidently added one of your members to the panel". He saw no reason why we should be allowed to have another member voice their opinion. This caused the audience to get visibly upset. In response, I intervened and said: Pardon me, Mr. Chair, but Mr. Valenti nicely pleaded that the leaders of the IT industry come to a consensus on DRM. However, one of the greatest figures in the computing field is standing right here, as part of NY Fair Use group. Richard Stallman has just been given an award in France by the United Nations for his contributions to World Heritage with the invention and development of the GNU/Linux system and its variants. He's the most qualified person in the room to make a public comment in response to Mr Valenti's request. My intervention quieted the crowd, as nobody wanted things to break down into a raucous confrontation. Though Richard was still denied a chance to speak, our discipline confirmed that the meeting could continue without derailing the workshop. However, much of the conversation from that point forward was affected by the events. The Digital Recording Rights Coalition presented more forcefully their position that DRM eroded fair use. Jack, in order to convey how serious the MPAA is about getting DRM enacted quickly, said that while the MPAA responded to a letter from Microsoft about progress toward DRM in 24 hours, that when the MPAA sent such a letter to Microsoft, Microsoft took a long time to respond. Microsoft at this point all but threatened to buy out all of the movie producers if they continued to be such a pain in the neck. Although this was not their exact words, their threat was neither veiled or lost on Mr Valenti. Meanwhile, Jack tried to persuade the panel that the movie industry had never really been against the VCR. This caused some agitation among the panelists, and the crowd laughed. The panel pointed out that despite the movie industry's professed love for the VCR, they brought an injunction against panel members whose companies made VCRs--an injunction that was eventually defeated in the Supreme Court. But Jack was not the only panel member capable of bald-faced lies. EMI tried to convince everyone that artists really don't hate their record labels, but only say so in public because its good PR. Later they claimed the record labels weren't responsible for preventing music from being available and said it is the artists' fault. AOL Time Warner delightfully wants to close the analog hole. And a bunch of other positions were espoused, many of which have been covered by Slashdot ad nauseum and need not be repeated here. At the end of the session, everyone on the panel had a chance to express themselves exactly as they wished. When it finished, Jay announced that NY Fair Use was having a press conference in front of the Commerce Department Building at 4:30 PM. I gave this press conference with the help of Richard and Jay, and we talked extensively with reporters from Bloomberg and other media organizations. We announced our position, and we announced our proposal for the NY Fair Use "Fair Use Bill". NY Fair Use attained almost all of our goals for this action. The phrases "We are the stakeholders" and "DRM is theft" have begun to make their way into the press. We are being invited to a new panel on DRM for consumers, the merits of which we are debating now. We are leery of the formation of another panel and question whether it is a stalling tactic. And we have reiterated our position that NY Fair Use wants a seat with the original panel. Capitol Hill was abuzz the next day with our activities. And Congressman Weiner's Office has promised to lead the efforts to bring us onto the panel in the future. NY for Fair Use has kicked down the door that everyone else will now run through. You are welcome. Ruben Safir is cofounder of NY Fair Use and President of NYLXS. Note - this is fueled by the artificially high cost of drugs by health insurance: End health coverage for drugs and HIV meds and percocet won't be a hot item Ruben May 6, 2011 Not Far From the Pharmacy, a Different Sort of Drug Deal By MICHAEL WILSON The universal, not-so-secret password of the drug deal: “What you got, man?” Only, in a twist on drug deals and, perhaps, health care reform and the law of supply and demand, the question plays out in reverse on a few busy blocks of Washington Heights. All day, every day, at the top of the steps of the uptown No. 1 train station at 157th Street and Broadway, the “dealer” is the person asking the question, and the person he is asking is you, if you’re carrying any sort of bag from a drug store. The dealer is not interested in drugs like cocaine, heroin or marijuana. The dealer wants to talk about Oxycontin and Percocet and, increasingly, the pills that make up the cocktail that combats H.I.V. Here is how it works: “These guys come out at 9:30 or 10 in the morning and step out with a cup of coffee and a doughnut like they’re going to a real job,” said a 59-year-old resident who, despite a long enough history of complaining to the authorities to qualify him as a gadfly, declined to give his name for fear of reprisal from the dealers. A person with a bag from a drugstore finds himself — perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not — walking a gantlet of sharp-eyed young men outside the station. “They’re all over you like crazy,” said a longtime building superintendent in the area, again unidentified. It doesn’t matter what is in the bag. “You’ve got a little lunch in your hand,” the gadfly said. “They’re approaching you to see if you want to sell your old prescription products.” They are indiscriminate: “I’ve been approached,” said Michael Mowatt-Wynn, whose professorial appearance alone would seem to make him an unlikely member of the black market. But he also happens to be the president of the Police Department’s 33rd Precinct Community Council. He was asked if he had Percocet to sell. If the answer is yes, buyer and seller step down into the subway station or around a corner and make the sale. The police believe the drugs are later shipped to the Dominican Republic, or resold on the streets. “The young ones will rob you,” the superintendent said. But historically speaking, it is a relatively bloodless operation. In a not-too-distant past, this was the battleground of a drug siege led by the so-called Jheri Curl Gang, for the product that shone in their hair, and the Wild Cowboys, who occupied entire buildings and sold packages of crack so recognizable that they were practically trademarked. The gangs protected their corners with guns, and dozens were convicted of murders in Manhattan courts in the 1990s. By comparison, the guys on Broadway are like Girl Scouts hitting you up to buy Thin Mints. The super provided the ultimate glass-half-full analysis: “They’re not selling drugs,” he said. “They’re buying drugs. They’re not infesting the neighborhood with drugs. They’re taking drugs out.” The legal penalties for buying and selling medicine do not approach those for hard drugs. In March, three men were arrested near the C train station on 155th Street; one sold H.I.V. medicine to the other two. They were charged with criminal diversion of prescriptions, a misdemeanor; one of the men pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served. Last year, the police arrested suspects at stash houses in Yonkers and Brooklyn who were stockpiling H.I.V. medication for shipment to the Dominican Republic. The investigation was led by the New York City special narcotics prosecutor, who ultimately passed it off to other agencies because there were no narcotics involved. The office is working on legislation that would put more teeth in arrests for sales of noncontrolled substances. Capt. Brian Mullen, the precinct’s new commanding officer, said there were arrests on Broadway in March and April. “My guys are out there every day, looking to make arrests in that specific area,” he said. On Tuesday, I approached a young man sitting on a standpipe on Broadway and told him I was writing a story about people selling pills. He asked for identification and then walked away, quickly returning with an older man in his 30s or 40s who beckoned me to follow him toward the entrance to an apartment building, set well off the sidewalk. We sat on a box under scaffolding and he said, “What you got, man?” I told him I was a reporter working on a story. Suddenly, there were three other men in the alley, standing around us. Just as quickly, they were gone. The older man got up and said he had nothing to say. I asked one more time about pills, and he turned and said with exasperation, “I thought you had pills.” E-mail: crimescene@nytimes.com Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By September 18, 2010 New Drugs Stir Debate on Basic Rules of Clinical Trials By AMY HARMON Growing up in California’s rural Central Valley, the two cousins spent summers racing dirt bikes and Christmases at their grandmother’s on the coast. Endowed with a similar brash charm, they bought each other matching hardhats and sought iron-working jobs together. They shared a love for the rush that comes with hanging steel at dizzying heights, and a knack for collecting speeding tickets. And when, last year, each learned that a lethal skin cancer called melanoma was spreading rapidly through his body, the young men found themselves with the shared chance of benefiting from a recent medical breakthrough. Only months before, a new drug had shown that it could safely slow the cancer’s progress in certain patients. Both cousins had the type of tumor almost sure to respond to it. And major cancer centers, including the University of California, Los Angeles, were enrolling patients for the last, crucial test that regulators required to consider approving it for sale. “Dude, you have to get on these superpills,” Thomas McLaughlin, then 24, whose melanoma was diagnosed first, urged his cousin, Brandon Ryan. Mr. McLaughlin’s tumors had stopped growing after two months of taking the pills. But when Mr. Ryan, 22, was admitted to the trial in May, he was assigned by a computer lottery to what is known as the control arm. Instead of the pills, he was to get infusions of the chemotherapy drug that has been the notoriously ineffective recourse in treating melanoma for 30 years. Even if it became clear that the chemotherapy could not hold back the tumors advancing into his lungs, liver and, most painfully, his spine, he would not be allowed to switch, lest it muddy the trial’s results. “I’m very sorry,” Dr. Bartosz Chmielowski, the U.C.L.A. oncologist treating both cousins, told Mr. Ryan’s mother, Jan. He sounded so miserable that afternoon that Mrs. Ryan, distraught, remembers pausing to feel sorry for the doctor. Controlled trials have for decades been considered essential for proving a drug’s value before it can go to market. But the continuing trial of the melanoma drug, PLX4032, has ignited an anguished debate among oncologists about whether a controlled trial that measures a drug’s impact on extending life is still the best method for evaluating hundreds of genetically targeted cancer drugs being developed. Defenders of controlled trials say they are crucial in determining whether a drug really does extend life more than competing treatments. Without the hard proof the trials can provide, doctors are left to prescribe unsubstantiated hope — and an overstretched health care system is left to pay for it. In melanoma, in particular, no drug that looked promising in early trials had ever turned out to prolong lives. PLX4032 shrinks tumors in the right patients, for a limited time. But would those who took it live longer? No one knew for sure. “I think we have to prove it,” said Dr. Paul B. Chapman, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center who is leading the trial. “I think we have to show that we’re actually helping people in the long run.” But critics of the trials argue that the new science behind the drugs has eclipsed the old rules — and ethics — of testing them. They say that in some cases, drugs under development, PLX4032 among them, may be so much more effective than their predecessors that putting half the potential beneficiaries into a control group, and delaying access to the drug to thousands of other patients, causes needless suffering. “With chemotherapy, you’re subjecting patients to a toxic treatment, and the response rates are much lower, so it’s important to answer ‘Are you really helping the patient?’ ” said Dr. Charles L. Sawyers, chairman of human oncology at Sloan-Kettering. “But with these drugs that have minimal side effects and dramatic response rates, where we understand the biology, I wonder, why do we have to be so rigorous? This could be one of those defining cases that says, ‘Look, our system has to change.’ ” Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the cancer drug office at the Food and Drug Administration, said in a recent interview that the new wave of drugs in development — especially for intractable cancers like melanoma — might require individual evaluation. “This is an unprecedented situation that will, hopefully, be increasingly common, and it may require a regulatory flexibility and an open public discussion,” he said. And doctors say that for them, the new wave of cancer drugs is intensifying the conflict between their responsibility to their patients and their commitment to gathering scientific knowledge for generations of the critically ill. Of course, no single pair of patients can fairly represent the outcomes of a trial whose results are not yet known. Rather, the story of Thomas McLaughlin and Brandon Ryan is one of entwined paths that suddenly diverged, with a roll of the dice. At times beseeching and belligerent, Mr. McLaughlin argued his cousin’s case to get the new drug with anyone he could find at U.C.L.A. “Hey, put him on it, he needs it,” he pleaded. And then: “Who the hell is making these decisions?” He believed he should trade places on the trial with Mr. Ryan, who was pursuing his contractor’s license and had just bought a four-bedroom home in Bakersfield. “Brandon has everything going for him,” he told his Aunt Jan. But Mr. Ryan told his mother he was glad that Mr. McLaughlin, who has a young son and daughter, was the one getting the promising drug. “Tommy has the kids,” he said. “They need him around.” Path to a Second Trial The debate over the controlled testing of PLX4032 began in June 2009, around the time Mr. McLaughlin awakened with what felt like an explosion under his right armpit. The drug, manufactured by Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, was designed for melanoma patients whose tumors carry a particular mutation, and the company reported that month that nearly all 32 such patients in the drug’s first clinical trial, called Phase 1, had seen their tumors shrink. The reprieve was all too brief: most saw their tumors begin to grow again within the year. Still, The New England Journal of Medicine called the drug “a major breakthrough” for people with advanced melanoma, whose median survival is eight months after diagnosis. A second, or Phase 2, trial, aiming to validate the results in more patients, was already in the works. And in meetings that summer, several oncologists urged Roche to seek accelerated approval from the F.D.A. The agency allows a manufacturer to sell a drug based on early promise so long as it proceeds with the traditional controlled trial comparing it with the standard treatment. But with patients already begging doctors for the drug, it seemed unlikely that anyone would join a trial with only a 50-50 chance of getting PLX4032 once it was already on the market. Unless the trial was conducted before approval, it seemed, there would be no chance to get definitive data on its effectiveness. Some melanoma specialists familiar with the drug would have traded the data for faster access to the drug. “I know all that I need to know based on the results we already have,” said Dr. Keith Flaherty of Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the early clinical testing. “My use of this drug is not going to be informed by testing it against a drug we all hate and would rather never give a dose of again in our lives.” The standard chemotherapy used in melanoma, dacarbazine, slowed tumor growth in 15 percent of patients for an average of two months. By contrast, PLX4032 had halted tumor growth in 81 percent of patients for an average of eight. It was conceivable that when the cancer started up again, it would progress much faster in patients who had taken the new drug, wiping out any extra time they might have gained. But even if so, many doctors believed that if the drug provided relief by shrinking tumors — like the one Mr. McLaughlin soon learned was pressing against a nerve in his arm — that would improve their patients’ lives. The trial, moreover, would cost $100 million and delay the possibility of F.D.A. approval by at least two years. To some doctors, it seemed a waste of time and resources that would be better used for trials testing what everyone most cared about: how to prolong the remissions. There was reason to believe that combining PLX4032 with other drugs — some from competitors — would make it more effective. But researchers had to rely on Roche for permission until the drug was available for sale, and the company had not been forthcoming. Dr. Chapman of Sloan-Kettering came up with a new tack: an unconventional bid to speed the drug’s approval, rooted in the observation that patients weeks or days from death could get out of bed and off oxygen when given PLX4032, sometimes for months. The doctors working with the drug referred to this as the Lazarus effect; it was unheard of with dacarbazine. A trial that cataloged PLX4032’s effect on the well-being of the sickest patients, Dr. Chapman argued, would probably yield fast, tangible results. For him, it represented a chance to give patients symptomatic relief, even if the drug turned out not to prolong life. “Even without a survival benefit, maybe we could show that it helps people,” he urged. “If you could get Aunt Sadie to the wedding and off of oxygen, that would be great.” But company officials feared that might lead to approval for only a narrow group of the sickest patients. The surest way to get the F.D.A’s endorsement for a broader market was a controlled trial. And with its competitors rushing to get similar drugs to market, the findings of such a trial might give Roche an advantage in marketing its version as the only one proven to prolong survival. On Sept. 1 last year, the company submitted its plan to the F.D.A. for the traditional, randomized, controlled trial of PLX4032. It would involve 680 patients, half of them in a control group. Dr. Chapman would be the lead investigator for more than 100 sites in the United States, Europe and Australia. Because of the different ways the drugs were dispensed — one by mouth and one by infusions — doctors and patients, it was decided, would both know who got which drug. The following week was when Mr. Ryan learned that his cousin might have a health problem. He called Mr. McLaughlin from a job site in Colorado, to tell him about his new Dodge Ram, a truck he knew Mr. McLaughlin had long coveted. He invited Mr. McLaughlin to come stay with him: there was plenty of welding work, and he could help break in the truck. But Mr. McLaughlin, who had no health insurance, had finally visited a doctor about the pain under his arm. It was melanoma, and he would need surgery to remove some lymph nodes. “Wow,” Mr. Ryan said, suddenly silent. “You have cancer?” Two Men’s Struggles Mr. McLaughlin’s surgery, it seemed, had come too late. In the weeks following, small tumors popped up across his body, including one on his collarbone and one on his triceps. When Mr. Ryan discovered a swollen node under his own right armpit in October, his mother was not taking any chances. She begged him to go to the emergency room in Colorado. Even so, when the verdict was melanoma, both families were shocked. Was it genes? Their mothers, after all, were sisters. But there was no history of cancer in the family. Environment? The boys had fought, played and competed with each other since childhood: who could hold his breath the longest, do the highest cannonball dive, suck down a Slurpee fastest, win their grandfather’s approval? They had ranged across California on iron-working jobs, eating the same food, drinking the same large quantities of beer, promising, in a rare moment of seriousness, that each would bury the other with his hardhat when the moment came. Coincidence? Compared with most cancers, melanoma strikes a disproportionate number of young people; it is the sixth most common cancer in the United States. There was no way to know. Last Thanksgiving, Mr. McLaughlin greeted Mr. Ryan with the usual bear hug. “Looks like we’re doing this together,” he said. Not ones for excessively talking things over, they left it at that. Yet both cousins, like the other family members, believed then that Mr. Ryan stood a far better chance of surviving the disease than his cousin. His cancer was rated Stage 3, with no evidence yet that it had spread to distant parts of his body. Mr. McLaughlin, at Stage 4, had a tumor ominously near his liver. And Mr. Ryan had health insurance, while Mr. McLaughlin had none. It was the mutated gene that the U.C.L.A doctor found in Mr. McLaughlin’s cancer cells in December that turned his luck around. Called B-RAF, it goes awry in half of the 68,000 Americans who develop melanoma each year, for reasons not well understood, signaling cells to grow uncontrollably. The mutation meant that he would be eligible for PLX4032’s new trial, so the cost of the drug and doctors’ visits would be paid by Roche. And it turned out he would get the pills even before the controlled study began, on a small test of the drug’s interaction with common drugs like caffeine and cough syrup. Judging by the response of patients to PLX4032 in the first trial, Mr. McLaughlin was almost certain to respond. But the medication, the doctors at U.C.L.A warned him, might cause a rash and fatigue and would probably make his skin extremely sensitive to the sun. “They told me to get a job where I could be inside all the time,” Mr. McLaughlin told Mr. Ryan with a grin; perhaps no one else could better understand how ridiculous it seemed for someone who had spent his whole life outdoors. Because the slots in the trial were reserved for patients with the most advanced cancer, Mr. Ryan was not eligible — yet. But because he had few symptoms, it hardly seemed to matter. After surgery to remove his cancerous lymph nodes and radiation, he was preparing to return to work. “Dude, I had ALL of my lymph nodes out,” Mr. Ryan boasted to his cousin over a Mexican-style Christmas dinner at their grandmother’s home in Santa Maria, not passing up an opportunity at one-upmanship. “How many did you have out again, 11?” Mr. McLaughlin, fingering the tumor that felt like a knot under his arm, might not have been in top form that evening. But he mustered a scoffing reply: “So you had all of them taken out and only four had tumors?” The following week, he took his first pills. But even as the tumor on Mr. McLaughlin’s collarbone began to melt away, a faint spot on Mr. Ryan’s lung began to grow. A Life-or-Death Debate The discontent among some oncologists over the design of the PLX4032 trial spilled over at a scientific meeting sponsored by the Melanoma Research Alliance in late February. The ethical review boards at dozens of prestigious cancer research institutions had signed off on the trial, and the leading melanoma oncologists had embraced it: after all, it was the only way to get the most promising drug available for their patients. But with the trial now under way, a few attending the Las Vegas meeting had already had to tell patients they had been assigned to the trial’s chemotherapy control group. And some had begun to question whether an ethical code that calls for doctors to be genuinely uncertain about which of a trial’s treatments will be more effective had been breached when it came to PLX4032 versus dacarbazine. After Dr. Chapman presented the recent data from the drug’s promising first trial to a packed room, Dr. Neal Rosen, a friend and Sloan-Kettering colleague, stood up. “Excuse me,” Dr. Rosen said with unusual formality. “But if it was your life on the line, Doctor, would you take dacarbazine?” The room was silent. “My goal,” Dr. Chapman shot back, “is to find out as quickly as possible in as few patients as possible whether this works. If we never know, then we’re never going to be able to build on anything.” One of the melanoma field’s senior clinicians, Dr. Chapman had lived through trial after trial of drugs that failed to live up to early promise. Almost every oncologist knew, too, of a case nearly 20 years earlier when bone marrow transplants appeared so effective that breast cancer patients demanded their immediate approval, only to learn through a controlled trial that the transplants were less effective than chemotherapy and in some cases caused death. “Making patients’ tumors go away is gratifying,” Dr. Chapman told critics. “But that’s not the business I’m in. I’m in the business of making people live longer. That’s what I want to do.” Several of the most veteran melanoma doctors agreed with him. But others argued that oncologists had an ethical obligation to push both the F.D.A. and Roche to make the drug more immediately available. Some of the strongest criticism came from laboratory researchers who study the biology of the disease and see the drug as fundamentally different from its predecessors. The previous red herrings, they argued, never had such a high response rate. Few other drugs had shrunk tumors in as high a percentage of patients with melanoma or any other solid tumor as PLX4032 had in its first human trial. “Many of my colleagues who are outstanding clinical investigators have been able to convince themselves that this is a fair thing to do,” Dr. David E. Fisher, a leading melanoma biologist at Massachusetts General, said of the controlled trial. “My personal view is it’s nuts. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t shuddered at the concept that we can’t let patients on the control arm cross over because we need them to die earlier to prove this point.” In the meantime, some doctors were searching for other trials that could help patients worsening in the chemotherapy group of the Roche trial, even at the risk of undermining its results. Several lobbied to get such patients slots on a new trial of a PLX4032 competitor, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. “It’s much easier to tell patients, ‘We’ll try this for six weeks; if it’s working, great, if not, we’ll shift you right away to the other trial,” said Dr. Jeffrey A. Sosman of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. “That’s how I’m going to be able to live with the randomization.” The reason to prevent patients in the chemotherapy group from subsequently getting PLX4032 was to ensure a clean comparison. But who could prevent them from trying treatments that might well help them live longer? At least one melanoma patient left Sloan-Kettering’s care to join the Glaxo trial at New York University. In April, Mr. McLaughlin donned a bandanna, a sun hat, a long-sleeved shirt and pants and went to a job building fences on a nearby ranch. The pills, he had vowed, would not prevent him from working outside. Mr. Ryan’s health, by contrast, was declining. He returned from work only to sleep. Often, when his mother called, he was too tired to come to the phone. “Sleeping, Mom,” he would text her. Or “You have no idea what this feels like, Mom.” Or just, “I hurt.” His doctor in Bakersfield moved up a scheduled scan. At the same time, a debate grew heated over Roche’s decision to withhold PLX4032 from many patients not eligible for the trial because they had already been treated with chemotherapy. The F.D.A. regularly approves such programs, known as “compassionate use,” for promising experimental drugs. But Roche feared a prospective trial candidate might undergo chemotherapy just to qualify for compassionate use and get PLX4032 with no strings attached. In an emotional moment, Dr. Donald Lawrence of Massachusetts General Hospital e-mailed colleagues about Roche’s decision last spring, under the subject line “moral outrage.” “Just had yet another conversation with a [patient] with a B-RAF mutation who will die in the next month or so because he can’t get PLX4032,” he wrote. “I feel we need to muster the support of our patients and lobby both Roche and the F.D.A. Compromising the Phase III trial is not justification for withholding an effective drug from dying patients.” But Dr. Michael Atkins, director of the cancer clinical trials office at Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center in Boston, urged him to consider what he thought was the greater good: “Even though it is painful, I think completing a clean Phase III trial and determining if there truly is a survival benefit for PLX would have major value for the field and future patients.” A Bitter Blow On the morning of May 12, Mr. Ryan and his mother drove to U.C.L.A. The cancer had spread throughout his body. Yet that weekend, the family was filled with hope. Dr. Chmielowski had found the same gene mutation that Mr. McLaughlin had in one of Mr. Ryan’s tumors. He was finally eligible for the trial. But the computer made its assignment the following Tuesday, making sure that he would not be getting his cousin’s “superpills.” Mr. Ryan’s mother picked up the call while her son was undergoing radiation for the tumor on his spine. He was on oxygen. “I’m sorry,” Dr. Chmielowski repeated as she cried into the phone. There must be someone higher up to whom she could talk, she said. There was not, he told her. It was completely random. No one could change it. “Who else has this drug?” Mrs. Ryan demanded. “We will go wherever we have to go.” There was nowhere to go, the doctor explained. Once Mr. Ryan had been randomly assigned to the control group at one place, the other hospitals testing the melanoma drug would not give it to him. U.C.L.A. had turned away such patients, too. The doctor did not tell Mrs. Ryan about the Lazarus effect — that for someone as sick as Mr. Ryan, PLX4032 was probably the best chance to control his symptoms while doctors searched for something better. The doctor could not know, of course, whether Mr. Ryan really would have fared better on the Roche drug, or whether Mr. McLaughlin’s disease would have been held in check just as well with the chemotherapy. Obeying the trial’s protocol meant withholding the drug from patients like Mr. Ryan, and that, Dr. Chmielowski would later explain, “is awful.” He told Mrs. Ryan, if the chemotherapy could stabilize her son for just a month or so, there were two new trials opening that might help him. “What gives them the right to play God?” Mrs. Ryan exploded at home later that night. “It doesn’t make sense to say, ‘We want you for a statistic’ instead of giving them a chance at life.” Mr. Ryan started his infusion the next day. But a week later, he was hospitalized, unable to breathe on his own and in horrible pain. “Bud brownies,” Mr. McLaughlin prescribed when he arrived to visit, having already signed himself up for medical marijuana use. “You get out of here, and I’ll make them for you.” He rated the nurses, trying to make Mr. Ryan laugh. “Maybe you should just say you want to split some of your pills with her and she’ll hop into bed with you,” he suggested after one left the room. A few minutes later, “No, that one’s a little cuter.” Then he reminded his cousin of the time Mr. Ryan had thrown a bolt up to where he was sitting atop a wall for a welding job adjacent to a golf course. Mr. Ryan missed his mark by several feet and the bolt landed on the other side, shattering the windshield of another contractor’s truck. “I’m like, ‘You just tagged that guy’s freakin’ truck,’ ” Mr. McLaughlin recounted for the other family members in the hospital room. On his side of the wall, Mr. Ryan had picked up a stray golf ball. “And then the guy walks out and Brandon goes, ‘Looks like those golfers hit your windshield.’ ” In his hospital bed, Mr. Ryan was beginning to smile. “And the guy gets in the truck,” Mr. McLaughlin finished, “and takes off for the golf course.” Two weeks later, at his cousin’s funeral in mid-June, Mr. McLaughlin placed Mr. Ryan’s hardhat in his coffin and helped carry it to the grave. Mr. McLaughlin has now been taking PLX4032 for nine months. He is awaiting his next CT scan. ~ ~ ~ ~ Leaders Protecting creativity Copyright and wrong Why the rules on copyright need to return to their roots Apr 8th 2010 | From The Economist print edition WHEN Parliament decided, in 1709, to create a law that would protect books from piracy, the London-based publishers and booksellers who had been pushing for such protection were overjoyed. When Queen Anne gave her assent on April 10th the following year—300 years ago this week—to “An act for the encouragement of learning” they were less enthused. Parliament had given them rights, but it had set a time limit on them: 21 years for books already in print and 14 years for new ones, with an additional 14 years if the author was still alive when the first term ran out. After that, the material would enter the public domain so that anyone could reproduce it. The lawmakers intended thus to balance the incentive to create with the interest that society has in free access to knowledge and art. The Statute of Anne thus helped nurture and channel the spate of inventiveness that Enlightenment society and its successors have since enjoyed. Over the past 50 years, however, that balance has shifted. Largely thanks to the entertainment industry’s lawyers and lobbyists, copyright’s scope and duration have vastly increased. In America, copyright holders get 95 years’ protection as a result of an extension granted in 1998, derided by critics as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”. They are now calling for even greater protection, and there have been efforts to introduce similar terms in Europe. Such arguments should be resisted: it is time to tip the balance back. Annie get your gun Lengthy protection, it is argued, increases the incentive to create. Digital technology seems to strengthen the argument: by making copying easier, it seems to demand greater protection in return. The idea of extending copyright also has a moral appeal. Intellectual property can seem very like real property, especially when it is yours, and not some faceless corporation’s. As a result people feel that once they own it—especially if they have made it—they should go on owning it, much as they would a house that they could pass on to their descendants. On this reading, protection should be perpetual. Ratcheting up the time limit on a regular basis becomes a reasonable way of approximating that perpetuity. The notion that lengthening copyright increases creativity is questionable, however. Authors and artists do not generally consult the statute books before deciding whether or not to pick up pen or paintbrush. And overlong copyrights often limit, rather than encourage, a work’s dissemination, impact and influence. It can be difficult to locate copyright holders to obtain the rights to reuse old material. As a result, much content ends up in legal limbo (and in the case of old movies and sound recordings, is left to deteriorate—copying them in order to preserve them may constitute an act of infringement). The penalties even for inadvertent infringement are so punishing that creators routinely have to self-censor their work. Nor does the advent of digital technology strengthen the case for extending the period of protection. Copyright protection is needed partly to cover the costs of creating and distributing works in physical form. Digital technology slashes such costs, and thus reduces the argument for protection. The moral case, although easy to sympathise with, is a way of trying to have one’s cake and eat it. Copyright was originally the grant of a temporary government-supported monopoly on copying a work, not a property right. From 1710 onwards, it has involved a deal in which the creator or publisher gives up any natural and perpetual claim in order to have the state protect an artificial and limited one. So it remains. The question is how such a deal can be made equitably. At the moment, the terms of trade favour publishers too much. A return to the 28-year copyrights of the Statute of Anne would be in many ways arbitrary, but not unreasonable. If there is a case for longer terms, they should be on a renewal basis, so that content is not locked up automatically. The value society places on creativity means that fair use needs to be expanded and inadvertent infringement should be minimally penalised. None of this should get in the way of the enforcement of copyright, which remains a vital tool in the encouragement of learning. But tools are not ends in themselves. http://www.economist.com/node/16274081 Israel's siege mentality Jun 4th 2010 7:13 GMT What the article is missing, and the article is insightful and articulate at presenting a dependable position, is that the source of all these problems is that Israel IS a Democracy. The people of Israel are sick of being shot at and refuse to give up their historical claim to there home land. It is one thing to give back the Sinai, but most of the West Bank is critical to Jewish Nation Identity. Furthermore, they are sick of being shot at by a hostile, anti-semetic, theologically destructive and expansionist, racist, violent, and hateful Islamistics people. Its not that they are Hawk. The Jews have no desire for expansion to Damascus and Terran. But they are not going to vote for a Government to give up keys parts of their Jewish Heritage, and they are sick of living in fear. If Israel was a dictatorship, everything this article says is a easy to do. Israel then rips up their settlements, and blows to bits all of Hamas, butually repressing them like Egypt does to the Muslim Brotherhood when the UN fails as it does everywhere else it is involved, and draws lines. Easy as pie, and end of story, and then they couldn't care less as long as the Despot remains in power. Unfortunately, Israel is a Democracy, and until they feel secure, they will not elect someone who would agree to any of this. In Egypt, 24 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak last February. The clashes erupted after Coptic Christians held a demonstration to protest against a recent attack on church in the southern city of Aswan. Press TV has interviewed with Khaled Elshami, Editor for al-Quds Daily, to share his opinion on this issue. Press TV: The Coptic felt they are under pressure during Mubarak's regime. Now they felt like they had this feeling that they could be free in order to perhaps be a part of the political system in the country more than before. But now they have this other fear which is the fear of the extremist groups who might want to create the suppression against them also. What do you think about this? Elshami: Well obviously the Copts are Egyptian citizens and they have the full right to participate in political life especially in this critical period where democratization is hopefully happening now and Egypt moving to democratic state after long time and the Mubarak dictatorship. And I think the problem is much more complicated than this. What we have here in Egypt is the government or the state, the Egyptian state looks too weak to many people especially after the revolution. People in Aswan thought they could do just like other people are doing now. They can advantage of this weakness and without planning permission they build an extension to ready existing church in Marina village. This extension, not the church, this extension was attacked by some extremists. The governor of Aswan said this part of the church is not really licensed and it was illegal to build but they were dealing with it. This was considered by some people in the Coptic side to be like siding the extremists who actually attacked the part of the church. Well up to this point it could have been just a local problem but could have been dealt with the local authorities in Aswan. But there are some extremists in the Coptic side like in all sides, Muslims and governments and all sides have their own extremists. So this was blown up to be a national problem in Egypt. We have seen demonstrations in many cities. That particular demonstration went to Maspiro, the location of the official Egyptian Television was feared to be aiming to occupy the television center. I was watching the press conference of the military ruling council and they showed people, Christian bishop said that they are going to kill the governor of Aswan and they are going to do whatever it takes to rebuild the church and making threats so the government has dealt with it by force which I think was unacceptable. But I think we need to deal with the roots of the problem. Press TV: Basically the same question for you, the fact that there could be foreign hands. Do the foreign hands you think come from perhaps the Jewish lobby in the United States? Is it close to the Coptic lobby there which is perhaps encouraging the fact that Copts get their own independence? How do you think we can define this contrast? Elshami: Well I think talking about independence state for Copts is just rubbish. This is for people who really do not know Egypt or the Egyptian society would say. ***Nevertheless there are extremists in the Copts abroad especially in the United States who are well known to be connected to the Zionists lobby in Washington and these people of course would have lots of interest in growing up any problem, in encouraging extremists who are inside Egypt to create trouble and encourage confrontation.*** Yet I agree with Dr. Khashan [the other guest of the program] that Egypt is not really going through civil war. Egypt is different. Muslims and Copts are living in harmony in Egypt for fourteen century now and this is not about to change. But as an Egyptians I would say that I am extremely concerned that Egypt could be going to a chaos. A chaos could be as deadly as civil war. And what we have seen in Cairo on the night of the nine of October is a complete chaos. And this is another evidence that you are asking about how fragile is the transitional period. Yes, it is very fragile. And I am sad to say that the ruling military council has failed to mange this period in a satisfactory manner. This government that boast to be a revolutionary government has turned out to be just like any government under Mubarak. They have failed. Press TV: To go back to the main point, do you think that Israel is taking advantage of this weakness and you are saying there are some ties with the Coptic lobby inside the United States. So do you think that Israel is trying to create this or encourage this chaos inside Egypt? Elshami: ***Well it is for obvious reasons Israel would benefit from a weak Egypt. Egypt that is not democratic. Because any democratic government in Egypt no matter how what political affiliation it is, whether it is Islamic, leftist or liberal, any real democratic patriotic government in Egypt would have to be against Israel and would have to review like the Camp David Accord will really work for the people and with the people.*** So Israel does not want that, so weak Egypt definitely serves the regional interest of Israel. But again I want to say this period is really difficult in Egypt. Now there are increasing pressures on the ruling military council to go because they have failed in maintaining Egypt national security and unity. This is not the first time we are seeing clashes Copts and Muslims and burning the church, we are not used to these kinds of things in Egypt even under Mubarak there have been attacks but we have never seen churches being burned and rocked by thugs like what we have seen in the last few months. So I think we need a transition to civilian democratic authority in Egypt as soon as possible. Press TV: How do you think the latest clashes, we might see more clashes, how would this affect the future elections in Egypt which you said is a main major point in order to create reform in the country? Elshami: Well there are fears now of course that we could even see more violence during the election. There are many voices now calling for postponing these elections until security situation is improved. I think we need a new time table for the election is unacceptable that the parliamentary elections would take three months. Egypt cannot really withstand this and there is no date set until this minute for the presidential elections. So there are growing concerns that the military council is not really in a hurry to leave and to transfer power and what happened in last Sunday actually intensified the pressure on them to set a timetable to transfer power but unfortunately we have not seen any sign of that neither we have seen any sign for the government to resign or actually to change the way it has been ruling the country in the last six months so we are really concerned that we are heading to major crackdown or direct conflict between the ruling elites and the people, the street who will see that those empowered have failed to deliver what the revolution wanted. There is no real difference that most of the Egyptians can feel now after the revolution. So I think at that point we could see another revolution maybe early next year when people see that there is no much difference. AHK/JR BARONESS FLATHER: Polygamy, welfare benefits and an insidious silence By Baroness Flather Last updated at 1:08 PM on 16th September 2011 In this disturbing and brave exposé, a Pakistan-born baroness reveals how some of her countrymen have as many children as possible by several wives so as to milk our welfare system... Baroness Shreela Flather, Mayor of Windsor and Maidenhead, was the first Asian woman member of the House of Lords Behind the creation of the modern welfare state lay a noble ideal. The post-war generation of politicians and civil servants were motivated by the desire to protect the vulnerable, the sick and those in genuine poverty. Tragically, over recent decades, the system has become corrupted. It might have once been a safety net for those in real difficulties but, today, parts of the benefits structure have become a lucrative racket for claimants who lack any sense of social responsibility. Through its generosity, which now costs taxpayers more than £200  billion a year, Britain’s social security system incentivises idleness and fecklessness. And one of the most worrying aspects of this — and which is something that has been a taboo subject for far too long, because of sensitivities about the issue of race — is the way the system is exploited by some migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh. As I said in Parliament this week, there is now a growing wealth of evidence that the generosity of the welfare state encourages some Muslims from these two regions — along with plenty of white families — to produce ever larger families in order to claim extra payments and publicly-subsidised housing. And it’s something the system seems to allow too easily. For example, a Pakistani man contracts a marriage in his native country, and then brings his wife to England to start a family. Because they have been married only under Islamic law, she isn’t legally registered by British authorities as his wife. Even so, they are able to claim child benefit for any children they have. But the state handouts do not end there, for under Islamic Sharia law, polygamy is permissible. So a man can return to Pakistan, take another bride and then, in a repetition of the process, bring her to England where they also have children together — obtaining yet more money from the state. Because such Islamic multiple-marriages are not recognised in Britain, the women are regarded by the welfare system as single mothers — and are therefore entitled to the full range of lone-parent payments. Eastern values fashion and cultures meet western on the high streets of the multicultural society of Birmingham As a result, several ‘families’, fathered by the same Pakistani man, can all claim benefits as they are provided for by the welfare state, which treats them as if they are not related. Figures are hard to obtain, but it’s thought there may be around 1,000 polygamous families living in the UK, costing taxpayers millions of pounds every year. A friend of mine, who investigated the issue for a BBC Panorama programme, told me of one street in a Yorkshire town where all the residents are Pakistani women with children living on social security. There is not one man living in the street. Where are the men? Perhaps with another family somewhere else. Who knows. It is certainly difficult to discuss, because this phenomenon of serial marriage and exploitation of the benefits system is taboo — with few people in Britain seeming to want to face the disturbing truth. Indeed, any mention of this issue is seen in politically-correct quarters as a much greater crime than the wanton abuse of the welfare system and of taxpayers’ money. There may be 1,000 polygamous families living in the UK My proof of this? Following my speech in the House of Lords this week, I have been subjected to a torrent of criticism, with some people accusing me of prejudice and others even condemning me for racism. Such accusations are absurd. I was born in the city of Lahore, which is now part of Pakistan, and I have devoted much of my public life to fighting discrimination. Yet in our politically-correct society, nothing smothers open debate more than the accusation of racism. We cannot continue like this. The misuse of welfare among some Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others has to be challenged, for the practice seriously undermines the social contract upon which the British welfare system is based. When modern social security was first introduced after the war, the driving force behind its creation was the liberal-minded civil servant Sir William Beveridge, who said that the system was not meant to provide ‘something for nothing’. Benefits were to be given in return for contributions to society — through taxes, national insurance payments and work. But, over the years, the contributory principle has been destroyed. Its obliteration is particularly stark in this case, for many of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi claimants will often have paid nothing in British tax or national insurance. What’s more, the continuation of this unfairness is a recipe for friction between communities. The misuse of welfare among some Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others has to be challenged, for the practice seriously undermines the social contract upon which the British welfare system is based Nor should we tolerate the acceptance of Sharia law in areas of this country (as some militants minorities have been calling for) since an extreme interpretation of the Islamic code treats women as second-class citizens, stripping them of their rights on practically everything from property to divorce, which they have under British law. Indeed, there is some evidence that the Department for Work and Pensions, which is responsible for running the welfare system, has turned a blind eye to the incidence of polygamy in Muslim communities. In 2007, the Ministry of Justice admitted it had no exact figure on the number of polygamous couples living in Britain, and my fellow peer Baroness Warsi more recently warned that the Government shies away from discussing the issue because of ‘cultural sensitivity’. Two years ago, ministers proposed a change to the law to tackle the issue — only to back down after being warned this could contravene human rights legislation. Furthermore, we are also allowing the culture of benefit dependency to have a very unhappy effect on our children. All studies show that they are best brought up in a household with a loving mother and father. The accusation of racism kills open debate But when they are cynically treated as nothing more than a means to welfare payouts — with their two parents living apart — they are denied that support. Not only are the children’s polygamous fathers often absent, but their mothers often struggle to cope with ever larger broods, unable to give their full attention to their individual sons and daughters. Furthermore, the culture of benefit dependency bred by this practice tends to trap children in poverty, for, through no fault of their own, these youngsters often grow up in jobless households without any masculine role models and are very likely to repeat this miserable pattern. It is time to break this cycle — and stop providing incentives to dependency. For a woman’s first two children, there should be the full raft of benefits, but, for the third child, the amount should be cut by a quarter and, for the fourth child, by half. After that, there should be no more benefits for any extra children. The same should apply to accommodation. It is wrong that families are encouraged to believe that they can keep moving to ever larger, taxpayer-funded homes simply by expanding the number of their children. After all, it’s not as if, in our advanced, industrialised society, there is a need for vast families, with children put to work to bring in vital wages. This might be the case in parts of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, where there is no social service provision, no NHS, no pensions or care homes for elderly, and where children are needed to look after their elders. Before critics of what I propose start throwing around abuse, I must stress that this is not some kind of British version of the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on family size, where parents are allowed to have just one child. I don’t care how many children any family has, but, beyond four, parents should be expected to meet their own costs. This is a matter of fairness between those who give and those who take. The current free-for-all, as we can now see from the country’s gargantuan fiscal deficit, is simply unsustainable. Places: Bangladesh, United Kingdom, India, Pakistan Organisations: House of Lords Comments (276) Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all I don't care what race or ethnicity the lazy "single " mummies or daddies are but I know I now have to work an extra 6 years in my upcoming old age and ill health to pay for them and their --- ahem --- youngsters. Unfortunately for me, I have the 1950s/60s mindset of my youth when these generous benefits just weren't available and parents worked their backsides off to provide for their very small families - one or two kids - as no one where I lived could afford to have more. It;s not a race issue - it's a moral issue. Is it fair for hardworking taxpayers to pay more and more tax to support the idle and lazy who are milking a system that was originally set up to help the genuinely poor, disabled and disadvantaged ? - Jean, Blackburn, Lancs, 16/9/2011 16:35 Click to rate Rating 188 Report abuse Will not bother with comments anymore. Some are repeated 3 &4 times and others that r in no way offensive r not published. Forget it I'll read something else in future. - Lc, London, 16/9/2011 16:31 Click to rate Rating 48 Report abuse Good article, just as well it wasn't a white person writing that or she would have been accused of being racist, exactly what this article wasn't. It does not matter what colour or creed you are, just have the children you can afford and don't expect everyone else to support you, I'm all in favour of helping those who have fallen on to hard times, but those who knowingly exploit the system should be ashamed of themselves, I, my husband and both my daughters and their parteners work very hard and we do not expect our taxes to be frittered away on the work shy, we would rather the vunerable elderly are supported, at least most of them have contributed throughout their lifetimes and deserve help in the twilight of their lives!! have these feckless people ever heard of contraception???!!!! - Ann, Rochester Kent, 16/9/2011 16:03 Click to rate Rating 145 Report abuse People are saying polygamy is illegal in Britain, yes it is but technically those who marry abroad aren't committing polygamy in the UK as their marriage under Islam isn't recognised as legally binding...so in effect they become like the fathers who father children on several women...I think people need to understand that it is mothers who claim or are entitled to claim and recieve majority of the benefits of having children not fathers...I have never heard of or come across Bangladeshi's or Bengali's having mulitple 'marriages' in the UK if it does happen it's very rare, but it more widespread within the Pakistani community in Britain, so if this is mainly a Pakistani issue, why not focus on Pakistani's...I think Flather like many MP's are afraid to approach or talk about issues focusing on Pakistani's community and so have to throw others into the mix... - IAmNoWhere, SomewhereOverThere, 16/9/2011 16:01 Click to rate Rating 56 Report abuse A simple solution, pay into the system for 5yrs before you can get anything out, no matter who you are and where you come from. Also 1st two children qualify for family allowance(2nd child half the amount of 1st child), thereafter no more for further children, they are your responsibilty. - shanky, Liverpool, 16/9/2011 16:01 Click to rate Rating 160 Report abuse This issue has come into existent in the recent decade or so...the first few generations of migrants only had multiple children because quite frankly they didn't know any better as most where from rural areas in their native countries, however most of the children born in these large families are actually having fewer children themselves, growing in a large family isn't easy no space or privacy. The problem of new migrants and benefits issue is because of the whole raft of fnew inancial incentives given to people who breed which goes across the board of ethnicity/race/religion! The issue with polygymy, I think it unfair to state Bangladeshi's in this regard, they are generally less likely to marry multiple times even in Bangladesh so this is more of a Pakistani concern and increasingly so in the Yorkshire region but I suspect this falls into the cousin marriages issue..which has reduced amongst Bengali's and Indian's as a whole. If Flather knew all this why not bring it up earlier... - IAmNoWhere, SomewhereOverThere, 16/9/2011 15:51 Click to rate Rating 35 Report abuse The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. 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RIVKIN JR. and LEE A. CASEY August 29, 2007; Page A15 Anyone who thought that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's resignation would improve the Bush administration's relations with Congress will be disappointed. The only unifying theme congressional Democrats have exhibited since taking control last January is an unremitting hostility towards President Bush in particular, and executive power in general. This animus has manifested itself in a series of pitched battles over the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), the detention of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, presidential signing statements and the dismissal of U.S. attorneys, all of which shaped the anti-Gonzales crusade. Although the attorney general was instrumental in framing the administration's position on each of these issues, all are critical elements in a larger dispute over the proper roles of Congress and the president in our constitutional system, and his departure does not change this fact. Whoever the new attorney general is, he or she must be just as determined to defend, beginning with the confirmation hearings, the president's legitimate constitutional authority against congressional encroachment as was Alberto Gonzales. The Constitution's framers wanted the federal government to have a strong executive power. Although few Americans were ever interested in a king, the country's experience under the Articles of Confederation suggested that Congress could not and should not exercise both legislative and executive authority. If the United States was not actually on the verge of dissolution -- and some at the time certainly thought this possible or even likely -- it had no effective government under the Confederation capable of defending the country's interests abroad or of addressing national concerns at home. The new Constitution remedied this situation by providing for a single, independently elected president who would exercise the executive power. As Alexander Hamilton later explained in The Federalist Papers: "Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks: It is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws." "A feeble executive," Hamilton warned, "implies a feeble execution of government." And, he noted, the very first "ingredient" constituting energy in the executive was this "unity" of authority in a single individual. Accordingly, the theory of a "unitary executive," which has become a particular bugbear to the Bush administration's critics, is nothing more than Hamilton's prescription put into practice by the Constitution. Because the Constitution grants executive power to the president alone, Congress cannot "balkanize" the office by carving out areas of executive authority -- such as responsibility for federal prosecutions -- to be vested in officials who are not ultimately subject to the president's direction and control. Thus, high-level officials like U.S. attorneys serve at the president's pleasure, and can lawfully be fired for "political" reasons. Similarly, the executive branch is a co-equal branch of government, and Congress cannot micromanage the president's exercise of his discretionary authority, particularly in the area of foreign and defense policy, or assign this role to the courts. Nor can Congress use its oversight power, which has been implied from the power to legislate rather than from any supervisory authority, as a means of controlling the president or the executive branch in general. As a result, any congressional demands for executive branch information must be grounded in a legitimate lawmaking need as part of legislative process, and balanced against the president's legitimate need for confidentiality in deliberations. Notably, it was Congress, and not the president, who the framers feared would usurp power from the other branches of government or the states. As James Madison explained during the Convention itself: "[e]xperience had proved a tendency in our governments to throw all power into the Legislative vortex." And, as in so many things, they were prescient. From efforts to control the conduct of the war on terror and the campaign in Iraq, to demands for White House materials relating to the removal of several U.S. attorneys in 2006, the current Congress has directed its efforts at enfeebling the president, and the presidency. Building upon this unfolding interbranch confrontation, Congress's efforts to undermine presidential authority are likely to play out with a vengeance in the weeks to come. Like other cabinet officials, the attorney general is subject to the senatorial confirmation process and senators have asserted themselves in the past by demanding commitments or concessions from a nominee (and his or her White House sponsors) on important legal and political issues. Frequently, they were indulged by administrations anxious to confirm their nominees. Today, there is every reason to believe that the new attorney general's confirmation hearings will be used by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a platform to compress and prevail on all of the legal issues, from the USA Patriot Act and the TSP, to the U.S. attorney firings and Guantanamo Bay, that have dominated their anti-Bush agenda. They will want their pound of flesh, but the White House should not pay. Instead, it should use the hearings as an opportunity to defend first principles and the policy choices the president already has made. In addition, the administration should unequivocally reject any Senate demands for the appointment of a special prosecutor to "investigate" the 2006 U.S. attorney firings, or allegations that Attorney General Gonzales "lied" to Congress when discussing the TSP. First, there is no substance to the claims that Mr. Gonzales, or anyone else, acted improperly in removing the U.S. attorneys -- who are political appointees and can properly be fired based on political considerations. The administration's opponents have been trying to find evidence of wrongdoing -- a "politicization" of the Justice Department -- for months now and have produced nothing more than speculation and innuendo. The White House should aggressively debunk the myth that either the attorney general himself or the U.S. attorneys should be somehow independent of the president -- a key Democratic talking point in the last several months. Congress should be reminded that all the authority U.S. attorneys exercise, including and especially prosecutorial discretion, ultimately belongs to the president and its exercise can be properly directed by him. Similarly, claims that Mr. Gonzales committed perjury are groundless. Last spring, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on highly classified intelligence programs, including the TSP. He chose his words carefully, so as to be truthful and to protect classified information. He stated correctly that there was no dissent among the Justice Department's leadership over the TSP, because it had been revised by those very officials to ensure its legality. An earlier program, doubtless similar to the TSP and over which there were objections, remains classified and Mr. Gonzales properly insisted on speaking only to the TSP that had been publicly acknowledged. While his statements appeared to differ from those of other officials, a careful examination of his testimony reveals no discrepancies in any material facts -- merely differences in descriptive terms used by different people. This is not perjury, it is life. Second, the "special" or "independent" counsel is a highly suspect institution. As Justice Robert Jackson, who himself served as attorney general and the chief Nuremburg prosecutor, explained long ago, the interests of justice are always at risk when a prosecutor is told who to investigate, rather than what offenses to pursue. The natural, and perhaps inevitable, result is a determination to fit a crime to the suspect, rather than find a suspect to fit the crime. This tendency is magnified when a special counsel is appointed because he does not have the perspective of an ordinary prosecutor -- who must balance priorities and assign scarce resources -- and his success or failure is measured based on whether a prosecution actually takes place. This is not the pursuit of justice, but the recipe for a political witch-hunt -- as was proven again and again in the 1980s and 1990s, before the independent counsel statute lapsed and went into a well-deserved legislative oblivion. Overall, the next attorney general's confirmation hearings offer the administration a unique opportunity: to defend the president's constitutional authority and policy choices to the American people, to reveal how Congress has attempted again and again to usurp his legitimate power, and to refuse any constitutionally suspect compromises with the Senate. If, as a result, it refuses to confirm a worthy attorney-general nominee, President Bush can properly state that the Democrats are playing politics in the middle of a war. This is a fight he can and should win, revitalizing his presidency in the process. Messrs. Casey and Rivkin served in the Justice Department under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. By JON KAMP More than two months after drugstore giant Walgreen Co. and pharmacy-benefit manager Express Scripts Inc. said contract-renewal talks had broken down in their multibillion-dollar relationship, "negotiations remain at an impasse," according to Walgreen. In documents filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Walgreen said it has started informing patients it won't be part of the Express Scripts network starting next year. The drugstore chain previously estimated that leaving the network could cost it about $5.3 billion in annual sales, or nearly 8% of its total. But it also had warned of the longer-term consequences of accepting unfavorable terms from Express Scripts. "This year, Walgreens has worked hard to reach a contract-renewal agreement with Express Scripts, the pharmacy benefits manager, to continue serving its clients and patients in 2012 and beyond," Walgreen said in the filing. "We have offered a number of cost-saving concessions, which, in effect, would hold annual average prescription-reimbursement cost increases to within an estimated 2% annually over the next three years," Walgreen said. It added that its costs are in line with other retail pharmacies. An Express Scripts spokesman said it also is preparing clients and members for Walgreen to leave its network starting Jan. 1, although Express Scripts said it believes its customers will have convenient options even without Walgreen's thousands of outlets. Walgreen has suggested otherwise while indicating Express Scripts could stand to lose customers as a result of the rift. "We are still open to Walgreens being in our network, but only at a rate that's right for our clients," said Express Scripts spokesman Brian Henry. "They would be the highest-cost pharmacy in our network with its current proposed rates." Pharmacy-benefit managers like Express Scripts handle prescription-drug benefits and claims for employers and health-insurer clients. In the past, PBMs have worked with drugstores to secure deals for their members, but the relationship has become more contentious as PBMs ramp up competition through their own mail-order pharmacies. Drugstores have opposed Express Scripts' planned acquisition of rival PBM Medco Health Solutions Inc., which would create a clear industry heavyweight. That cash-and-stock deal was valued at $29.1 billion when first announced in July. Walgreen said its promotion of 90-day prescriptions, which mail-order pharmacies offer as an alternative to the monthly prescriptions retail outlets traditionally use, has been a source of friction with Express Scripts. Though these longer-term prescriptions could save money at the retail level, Express Scripts rejected Walgreen's offer to promote them, Walgreen said in its filing. Analysts have indicated Walgreen has more immediately at stake than does Express Scripts if the two sides can't find common ground. Express Scripts customers can fill their prescriptions elsewhere. Leerink Swann, analysts said Friday that they don't believe Express Scripts' 2012 retention rate has been harmed by the Walgreen situation. Walgreen raised the idea of potential business losses for Express Scripts if that company's customers didn't have access to the nation's largest retail pharmacy chain, which has nearly 8,000 locations. Walgreen also said Express Scripts may be out of compliance with provisions in customer contracts, especially with respect to customers' access to 24-hour pharmacies. It cited a dearth of 24-hour pharmacy services in places like Topeka, Kan., and Colorado Springs, Colo. Express Scripts rejected the idea it could run afoul of such contract terms. "We will meet all client access requirements even without Walgreens in the network," Mr. Henry said. Express Scripts said there are 56,000 other pharmacies in its network and that most people can find a non-Walgreen option within a short drive or walk. At midafternoon Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, Walgreen shares were up 1% at $35.11. The company also said Tuesday that its same-store sales rose a stronger-than-expected 5.6% in August. In midafternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Express Scripts shares were down 12 cents at $45.22. The company disclosed Friday that the Federal Trade Commission has asked for more input on its proposed PBM Medco acquisition, extending the time period for an antitrust review. —Maxwell Murphy contributed to this article. Subway shocker: A cheaper tunnel under the Hudson Published: Friday, November 19, 2010, 5:52 AM Star-Ledger Editorial Board Amanda Brown/The Star-Ledger The multi-billion Hudson River train tunnel construction site sits empty. Now, New York City is looking at extending one of its subway lines into New Jersey. The news that New York City is interested in building a subway tunnel under the Hudson River is both welcome and shocking. Right now, this idea is nothing more than a four-page memo from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office that resurrects a strategy discarded long ago. There is no money set aside for it, no study of the engineering or environmental impacts and no coalition fighting for needed aid from Washington. This could easily be a mirage. But rub your eyes and take a look. At about half the cost of the Access to the Region’s Core rail tunnel that Gov. Chris Christie killed, this plan proposes to deliver as many commuters, or more, to good jobs in Manhattan. New Jersey needs that connection more than New York City does. More than 250,000 New Jerseyans commute every day to jobs that pay 60 percent more, on average, than jobs here. This is a pillar of this state’s prosperity. Without a new tunnel, it will grind to a halt, and the new jobs will go to commuters from New York and Connecticut. What’s shocking is that this was not a larger part of the conversation all along. If it proves viable, this could be the Plan B that Christie never proposed after walking away from the ARC tunnel. Lucky thing that at least New York City hasn’t given up. The subway plan, unlike the New Jersey plan, would force commuters to switch at Secaucus. But it would give riders the ability to go straight to Grand Central Station, which the ARC plan did not. If it really does cost half as much, that’s an easy trade-off to accept. Can this really work? At this stage, who knows? But let’s kick the tires and find out. © 2010 NJ.com. All rights reserved. Transportation Topics / Transportation / This Month's Article Transportation Newsletter Sign up for our monthly Transportation newsletter: First Name: Last Name: Email: Plain-text HTML Signup to this list's RSS feed The Topic Transportation: All the ways that you can get around -- auto, subway, bus, taxi, airplane, train, car service, limousine, walking and biking. The Context With 18.9 million residents in the metropolitan area, NYC has particularly high demands on its public transportation system and its roads. Links in the News Train Derails, Threatens Morning Commute MTA Pushing Back Door Bus Exits New York Police Department Veteran to Lead MTA Cops City Slashes Parking Permits 'Parking' Abuse Curbed Sites for Beginners New York City Subway Resources Money for Transit Systems to Increase Transportation Alternatives Recommended Sites Naparstek Subway Blogger Subway Web News Abandoned Stations Tri-State Transportation Campaign Reports Shmutz on the Subways Preliminary Mayor's Management Report Commute Times Worst for Low-Income Minorities Transit and the Disabled Crosswalks Dangerous for the Elderly Transportation Books 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York by Clifton Hood New York: The Politics of Urban Regional Development by Michael N. Danielson and Jameson W. Doig The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York by Peter Derrick Urban Transportation Systems: Choices for Communities by Sigurd Grava Transportation Home Article Archive Recent Bills/Laws Best Books Message Board Links For Beginners Recommended Sites Links in the News Reports Blog Type Size: A A printer friendly format email this article most emailed articles digg this stumble it del.icio.us The Rail Freight Tunnel by Bruce Schaller June 2004 Another big transportation project moved a step forward in May with release of a draft environment impact report on a rail freight tunnel between Brooklyn and New Jersey. The $20 million study, commissioned by the New York City Economic Development Corporation during the Giuliani Administration, found that a 5.5 mile cross harbor tunnel from Sunset Park in Brooklyn to Greenville Yard in Jersey City would improve the movement of goods in the region, spur economic growth and reduce both air pollution and traffic congestion. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of Manhattan, who has pushed the project for years, supported by Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, are seeking $1.4 billion in federal funding from the federal transportation bill now under consideration by a Congressional conference committee. If approved and funded, construction would start in 2008 at the earliest. Freight transportation is a major issue in the New York region, although it receives much less public attention than auto travel and transit issues. The region is highly dependent on trucks for the movement of goods, and those trucks obviously encounter the same traffic congestion and unpredictable travel times as every other vehicle encounters on the highways and streets of the region. This congestion drives up the costs of living and doing business in New York, and is thus an important impediment to the economic development of New York City and its suburbs. These costs are typically bundled into the costs of products and services, however, and thus hidden from the consumer. Occasionally the higher goods transport costs become apparent. As a personal example, I once found that it cost twice as much to ship a large skylight from California to Brooklyn than to the New Jersey suburbs - illustrating that goods shipment across the Hudson is particularly affected. These problems are only going to worsen over the next several decades. The cross harbor freight tunnel study projects that overall traffic volumes will increase 47 percent for Hudson River bridge and tunnel crossings between 2000 and 2025 and by 25 percent for East River crossings. Although the New York region developed in the heyday of railroads, remarkably little freight uses the rails. While 79 percent of regional freight movement (measured by weight) is by truck and 15 percent is waterborne, only 5.6 percent moves by rail. Furthermore, rail transportation accounts for only 1.6 percent of freight tonnage east of the Hudson River. A major impediment to increasing the share of freight using rail transportation is the lack of direct connections across the Hudson. The closest rail bridge is in Selkirk, New York, 140 miles north of the city. A new rail tunnel connecting Brooklyn with either New Jersey or Staten Island could use the substantial capacity of existing rail lines in Brooklyn and Queens. The environmental study favored building the tunnel to New Jersey instead of Staten Island due to lower cost, less environmental impact and offering better rail connections. The Staten Island tunnel alignment would require more circuitous routing for some trains to reach the Staten Island portal, and would thus attract less cargo than a New Jersey connection. The study recommended further consideration between a single-track tunnel versus double-track tunnel to New Jersey. The single tunnel would cost $4 billion versus $7 billion for a double tunnel and would have lesser adverse environmental and neighborhood impacts. But a single tunnel would also divert less truck traffic from congested roads and bridges and thus produce lower benefits than a double tunnel. The single tunnel would divert 5.4 percent of all truck cargo, compared with 8.5 percent for a double tunnel. Diversion of freight from truck to rail would obviously reduce traffic volumes and traffic congestion throughout the New York region. A single tunnel would reduce truck travel by three percent in the region while a double tunnel would produce a 4.5 percent reduction. A cross harbor tunnel would have the most impact on commodity trucks - think of the big tractor trailers - using Hudson River crossings. Commodity truck traffic would decline by up to 11 percent on Hudson River crossings overall, and by up to 18 percent on the Verrazano Bridge. While this is good news for New Jersey, Staten Island and Westchester, the effects are a bit different for Queens. Since rail freight would be transferred to trucks in Queens, truck traffic would increase on Queens roads and bridges. Commodity truck volumes would increase as much as 41 percentin the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, for example, as well as on major highways. While a cross harbor tunnel would have major impacts on the volume of commodity truck trips, overall effects on traffic congestion would be extremely modest. Commodity trucks represent only 1.9 percent of all vehicles using the Hudson River crossings and 0.7 percent using East River crossings. Thus, total traffic volumes would fall by only as little as 0.1 percent on Hudson River crossings, while increasing by the same range on East River crossings. The major benefits from a tunnel are economic rather than traffic or air quality. Based on complex economic models that are typically used to assess major construction projects, the study estimates that a double tunnel would produce $10.28 billion in total benefits over its lifetime. Most of this figure comes in economic benefits measured as growth in personal income as the tunnel's improvement to freight movement results in costs savings for businesses, spurs growth of existing businesses and attracts new companies to the region. The study projects $7.5 billion in growth in personal income over the life of the project, measured in constant 2002 dollars. Some of this is in the form of direct benefits (e.g., the incomes generated by new jobs). Also included in the $7.5 billion are so-called multiplier effects, attained as the money further circulates within the region. For example, if a new employee hires a babysitter, the babysitter's income is counted in the multiplier. The study estimates that a double tunnel would produce $10.3 billion in benefits and $4.7 billion in costs, using 2002 dollars, for a 2.2-to-1 benefit/cost ratio. The ratio for a single tunnel is 1.9-to-1. Congressman Nadler points out that these ratios are unusually high for transportation projects. While receiving scant attention from major New York media outlets, release of the tunnel study generated a lively debate in Queens and New Jersey. Queens newspapers focused on the loss of 44 to 52 businesses due to expansion of the West Maspeth rail yards, with possible loss of 1,200 to 1,400 jobs.. The tunnel would also attract additional trucks to the neighborhood. The Queens Chronicle quoted Gary Giordano, district manager of Community Board 5, saying that, "There are concerns with regard to increased truck traffic in that Maspeth industrial area. That's a big concern, as well as the pollution associated with that." Although the study did not include solid waste as potential tunnel cargo, Jersey City officials assailed the project as a "trash tunnel." The Jersey Journal quoted Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham saying that, "We do not need to be a garbage transfer locality for the city of New York." The next step in the project is public hearings on the draft environmental impact statement in June. As with many other major projects -- including the Second Avenue subway, extension of the #7 train and linking the Long Island Rail Road to lower Manhattan -- the biggest stumbling block is funding.. It remains to be seen whether Nadler can secure partial funding from Congress. Bruce Schaller is head of Schaller Consulting, which provides research and analysis about transportation, and is also a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University. August 4, 2000 Study Backs Freight-Train Tunnel in New York Harbor By THOMAS J. LUECK A proposed rail-freight tunnel under New York Harbor that Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has adopted as a favored project would cost up to $2.3 billion but would pay for itself through increased business along a revitalized Brooklyn waterfront, according to a city study. The two-year study by the New York City Economic Development Corporation recommends that a tunnel be built connecting Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and either Staten Island or Jersey City, linking New York to the existing rail-freight network in the rest of the country. The report also says that a harbor tunnel could reduce the number of large commercial trucks that enter New York City -- mainly over the George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges -- by almost a million a year. Since such a huge project would take at least a decade to complete, the report suggests that barges be used to carry freight across the harbor to and from Brooklyn in the interim. The report was completed in May, but it has been released only to technical advisers and elected officials. Mayor Giuliani has been urging the construction of a tunnel under the harbor for years, and the idea has been around since the 1920's. Critics say the tunnel is too expensive and faces huge hurdles because of its cost and the layers of review by the federal and state agencies responsible for New York Harbor. But the report by the Economic Development Corporation supports the project. ''This two-year study confirms that a new, direct rail-freight link would have dramatic positive impacts,'' it concludes. The proposal faces difficult political hurdles not directly addressed by the report. Gov. George E. Pataki, who controls how federal aid for transportation projects is parceled out around the state, said in January that he would not join Mayor Giuliani in pushing for a harbor tunnel until seeing the results of the city study. Yesterday, Joseph Conway, a spokesman for the governor, said Mr. Pataki was ''still reviewing the findings'' and would not comment. Supporters of the project say it would also hinge on the support of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the shipping terminals in the harbor and the bridges that carry most truck traffic into the city. One recommendation in the report on financing a tunnel is for the Port Authority to impose a 35 percent surcharge on the tolls now charged commercial trucks coming into the city. ''Until we finish reviewing the whole report, we can't offer any conclusions,'' said Steven Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman. Despite its detailed analysis of projected benefits, the city's report did not alter skepticism from some experts in transportation and economic development, who said a rail tunnel might be outmoded by the time it was built. They pointed to the heavy demand by freight carriers for existing railroad tracks in New Jersey and elsewhere, which may not leave enough room to divert much of the cargo now trucked to and from the city. ''You are making a very large bet on what the freight market will be like 10 to 15 years down the road, and if you guess wrong, you blow the money,'' said Hugh O'Neill, an economic consultant and co-author of a New York University report in December that argued against Mayor Giuliani's proposal for the tunnel. Aides to the mayor, who has not discussed the report publicly and was attending the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia yesterday, said that the report remained under review at City Hall. ''We are reviewing it with an eye toward what would be best for the city,'' said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation, whose president, Michael Carey, declined to be interviewed. But the report, paid for by a $3 million federal grant and $2 million from the city, seemed likely to encourage the elected officials, urban planners and others who staunchly back the tunnel project. ''This gives real substance and real empirical evidence'' to the benefits of the project, said Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, who has long been a proponent of a harbor tunnel as a means of reducing truck traffic and providing rail access to the Brooklyn waterfront. He envisions the tunnel as a link to a re-energized port terminal in Sunset Park, with the deep water off the Brooklyn waterfront enabling the terminal to be used by a new generation of deep-draft cargo vessels that cannot navigate the shallower channels leading to ports on Staten Island and in New Jersey. The two-year study, which the city said incorporated detailed analyses by several engineering firms, focused on two paths for the proposed tunnel, each linked to the little-used 65th Street freight yard in Bay Ridge. From there, the tunnel would be dug under the harbor to freight-rail links on Staten Island or in Jersey City. In either case, a tunnel would provide connections to the national freight-rail network. Cost estimates in the study are provided for tunnels wide enough to accommodate one track or two. They range from $1.4 billion to $2.3 billion. The cost projections include work that would be required to heighten overpasses and upgrade idle rail tracks in the city, enabling trains to travel from Bay Ridge to the Bronx or to make a connection to Long Island. The report projected the cost of a new system of freight-carrying barges, which could cross the harbor from several docks in Brooklyn and New Jersey and on Staten Island, at $150 million. Cargo handling by barge was common in New York Harbor until the early 1960's, but has since all but died away. The report said a new system was necessary as an ''essential building block'' to foster economic activity until the proposed tunnel was built. While offering no direct recommendation on financing the project, the study said alternatives in which private investment paid the bulk of the cost should be explored. It said freight carriers would be charged a fee to use the tunnel and that space could be sold for use by electrical utilities, which would lay cables, or by fiber optics companies. January 31, 2007 Mystery Freight Train Out of Queens? It May Soon Be a Familiar Sight By COREY KILGANNON EASTPORT, N.Y. — Gritty freight trains may be a familiar sight out West and in cowboy movies, but in Queens and Brooklyn and the neat suburbs of Long Island, they are a roaring, sooty cause for a big double take. “We go through here every day, and everyone still looks at us like ‘What the heck is this?’ ” said Tom Materka, a rail freight engineer, as the train approached the Hicksville station, one of the Long Island Rail Road’s busiest commuter stops, one recent afternoon. “People are always shocked to see a freight train coming through here.” Mr. Materka, 30, an engineer for the New York & Atlantic Railway, one of the few remaining short-line rail freight companies in the region, was running two screaming 120-ton diesel locomotives towing a string of sooty boxcars from Queens out to eastern Long Island. Well-dressed commuters looked up from their newspapers and coffee and stared as the smoky train roared by and transformed the suburban station into Tumbleweed Junction. The line uses obscure rail tracks in Queens and Brooklyn and tracks of the Long Island Rail Road in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Since freight trains are far outnumbered by commuter trains, few people glimpse the bulky, graffiti-covered boxcars as they lumber past the sleek silver commuter cars rushing passengers to or from Pennsylvania Station. But passengers can expect to see more of these trains soon. Transportation experts, government officials and rail freight advocates say conditions are suddenly in their favor. New York’s new governor, Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, favors expanding rail freight, as does United States Representative Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mr. Nadler, a longtime champion of building a rail freight tunnel under New York Harbor to reduce truck traffic, helped obtain $100 million in federal money in 2005 to study the tunnel project, and his power has increased now that the Democrats have a majority in Congress. Given that political climate, and the effect high fuel costs have on prices of goods trucked in, experts say they expect a huge increase in rail cargo in the New York area. The city gets roughly 2 percent of its goods by rail, compared with a 40 percent average figure nationally, experts say. Also, a new waste management plan for New York City calls for more reliance on rail freight to ship waste out. The city is set to activate a rail freight line on Staten Island and is seeking to expand rail activity in Bay Ridge, where a short-line railroad floats rail cars from New Jersey across New York Harbor to Brooklyn to be picked up by New York & Atlantic. Since taking over the Long Island Rail Road’s freight operation in 1997, New York & Atlantic has managed to navigate the tricky, obscure rail tracks in Queens and Brooklyn and dodge the thick traffic of the Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter line in the country. Annual totals have increased to about 22,000 carloads last year from 9,000 in 1997. This little-noticed suburban rail line has become the little engine that could, and proposed increases in rail freight could thrust it into a much larger role, as would plans to create new depots on Long Island to reduce truck traffic on the Long Island Expressway. “Rail freight is expanding here and we’re going to grow with it,” said New York & Atlantic’s general manager, Mark Westerfield. “We’re connected to the national network, and the rest of the country relies on rail freight.” Operations are limited by the size of the main yard at Fresh Pond Junction in Glendale, Queens, he said, and by the capacity and condition of the tracks, overpasses and aging signal systems for the line’s fleet of 13 locomotives, some of them a half-century old. Mr. Westerfield said he was seeking government money to help the railway expand operations. The company has 10 years left on its exclusive contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for track use; after that, it has the right to renew for another 20 years, he said. One morning this month at the Fresh Pond yard, next to a neighborhood of homes, a crew connected the 50-foot-long hoppers and boxcars to be delivered to Long Island: baking flour headed to Lindenhurst, oats bound for Belmont Park racetrack, plastic pellets and bricks headed for Hicksville, and chicken feed for Eastport. The conductor, Jeremy Lally, 31, of Bohemia, on Long Island, and his burly brakeman, Sean McCarthy, 29, of Huntington, swung on and off the train and threw hand switches, just as in old movies. Mr. Materka, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, nimbly handled a set of old valves and heavy handles on the control stand, to maneuver the diesel from track to track, picking up the cars by ramming into their massive steel couplings. The other two men hoisted themselves up the steep metal steps onto the hulking locomotive and along a catwalk into the engine’s cab, and soon the train was chugging east toward the Jamaica rail hub, carefully avoiding the path of oncoming rush-hour commuters speeding toward Penn Station. The winter sun streaked through the locomotive cab’s narrow windows as Mr. Lally thumbed through his huge book of rail schedules to see which trains were ahead and behind them. Passenger trains have priority, and the freight conductor’s biggest priority is finding gaps in the commuter train schedule. Mr. Lally constantly called and radioed to control towers to see when the train could pass through stations between commuter trains, while Mr. Materka pulled the near-deafening horn incessantly to warn cars and pedestrians at traffic crossings. The freight line, with its 10 train crews on duty each day, serves about 80 businesses in Brooklyn and Queens and on Long Island. It extends to Bridgehampton on the South Fork of Long Island and Southold on the North Fork. Its cargo includes produce, lumber, asphalt, paper, plastics, rice, beer, onions, road salt, building materials, recyclables, chemicals, iron, steel. Most cars come down from upstate New York or Connecticut through the Bronx, across the Hell Gate Bridge over the East River, and through Queens. They pass highways and dense urban landscape and, as the Manhattan skyline recedes, the scenery turns to a blur of backyards, ball fields and strip malls. The locomotive is a 2,000-horsepower diesel, about 30 years old, with a 3,000-gallon diesel fuel capacity. Two or three locomotives are usually hitched together so that the huge train can accelerate to avoid the commuter trains. The crew members hopped out to throw large levers connected to antiquated-looking track switches, to allow the train to enter various sidings and yards for deliveries and pickups. Many spur lines and off-ramps are now rusted and overgrown, but lately the crew members have seen signs of revival, as some companies build new sidings to make way for rail service. IRS Was Afraid of the Constitution, the Obama Scandal Suggests By IRA STOLL, Special to the Sun | May 20, 2013 http://www.nysun.com/national/irs-was-afraid-of-the-constitution-the-obama/88305/ Of all the discouraging news in the scandal involving President Obama’s Internal Revenue Service, the most illuminating is that one of the things that triggered additional scrutiny from the IRS for groups applying for tax-exempt status was any plan for “educating on the constitution and bill of rights.” As the details of the situation have emerged, various explanations have arisen for the behavior of the IRS officials involved. A 2,700-word report issued over the weekend by a team of seven New York Times journalists attributed the problem to “an understaffed Cincinnati outpost that was alienated from the broader I.R.S. culture.” A more straightforward explanation is that, rather than being culturally alienated, the IRS officials, and their bosses, right up to and including the president, were genuinely afraid of what Americans might find out if they did actually have a careful look at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The most potentially devastating development would be if people read the First Amendment. That says “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and the petition the government for the redress of grievances.” It’s pretty plain: “Congress shall make no law...” The First Amendment doesn’t say “Congress shall make no law so long as you apply to the IRS and register under section 501(c)4 of the Internal Revenue Code, but if your ‘major purpose’ under the Federal Election Commission’s regulation is politics, you have to register with the FEC and disclose your donors, and if you are a lobbyist, you have to register and disclose your clients.” The First Amendment doesn’t say that if a person wants to exercise the rights of speech, assembly, or petition, the person should have to wait months for IRS approval and spend all kinds of money on lawyers and accountants who have expertise in navigating these shoals. It doesn’t say there’s a higher bar for Tea Party groups, or that those groups have to wait longer or supply more information. What the First Amendment does say is pretty plain: “Congress shall make no law...” The rest of the document is pretty clear, too. The powers of the Congress and of the President are enumerated. Nowhere among those enumerated powers is the power to demand that individuals disclose their donors, their plans to run for elective office, or their social media posts as a condition of exercising their rights to speech, assembly or petition. On the contrary, the Ninth Amendment makes clear that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” In other words, if people read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they might realize that the entire elaborate regulatory apparatus that politicians and bureaucrats have erected to limit these rights of speech, assembly, and petition rests on constitutional ice that is thin-to-nonexistent. The response from the “campaign finance reform” crowd is that it’s not speech, assembly, or petition that is being regulated, but money, and that there’s a legitimate government interest in regulating money to prevent corruption. A Supreme Court majority has agreed with that argument up to a point, but only up to a point. There’s a case to be made that a way to fix all this would be to get rid of both the corporate income tax and the charitable giving tax deduction. That way there’d be no need for the IRS to pass judgment on which corporations are taxable and which are tax exempt, and on which of the tax-exempt ones get to have their donors qualify for the charitable deduction. But an even more basic fix is education on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, so that people have a crystal clear understanding of their rights to speech, assembly, and petition for redress, and of how those rights are not subject to abridgment by Congress. That understanding, sadly, is what the IRS under President Obama seems to have been determined to prevent. And if there’s a positive aspect of the IRS scandal, it’s that it turns out that despite the IRS, enough Americans already have a robust understanding of the First Amendment that they met the IRS’s behavior with the outrage it deserved. Mr. Stoll is editor of FutureOfCapitalism.com and of Smartertimes.com. Secular tolerance for Arab and Muslim intolerence Matthew Hausman - 1/27/2010 Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef recently took a public flogging for allegedly describing Islam as “ugly,” specifically with respect to its laws concerning marriage and divorce. The liberal blogosphere had a field day, calling the Rabbi a bigot and labeling his comments hate speech. But the bloggers provided no contextual counterbalance, such as a critical discussion of the defamation of Jews and Judaism that occurs routinely in the Arab press or the historical discrimination of Jews in Muslim society. Nor do they ever. Although these folks cry themselves hoarse concerning their right to free speech whenever challenged for their demonstrably biased reporting on Israel – or for lambasting comments such as those by Rabbi Yosef – they are silent whenever the subject is Arab or Muslim incitement or intolerance. The story about Rabbi Yosef was reported on an Egyptian news website, which not surprisingly found his comments to be inflammatory. However, such expressions of moral outrage are curiously inconsistent with the Egyptian media’s routine publication of antisemitic content worthy of Der Stuermer. Egyptian media outlets commonly depict Jews as racially-distinctive, hook-nosed caricatures, report as fact a multitude of mythical Jewish conspiracies, exploit the antisemitic imagery of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and provide a forum for devotees of the blood libel. The government-sponsored newspapers Al-Ahram and al-Goumhuriyya regularly run articles and cartoons in the classic antisemitic tradition, as do other sources throughout the Arab world. The media rogues’ gallery includes most major press outlets, including: • Al Jazeera, which broadcasts the rants of clerics who quote Quran and Hadith in calling for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jews. • Al-Arab al-Yaum, a Jordanian daily that has published such offensive articles as “Killing Children According to Jewish Faith,” (March 8, 2008), which reported that Jews kill Gentile children and use their blood for religious rituals. The Damascus Blood Libel is clearly considered historical fact. • SANA, the Syrian Arab News Agency, which has run stories calling the Holocaust a Zionist myth and describing Jewish or Zionist plots to colonize the Mideast. • Al-Riyadh, the Saudi daily, which has printed articles reporting the blood libel as historical fact. As reported by MEMRI, for example, the newspaper in 2002 published an article in which the commentator expounded on the holiday of Purim, stating among other things that: During this holiday [Purim], the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare –– it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets . . . For this holiday, the victim must be a mature adolescent who is, of course, a non-Jew – that is, a Christian or a Muslim. His blood is taken and dried into granules. The cleric blends these granules into the pastry dough; they can also be saved for the next holiday. In contrast, for the Passover slaughtering, about which I intend to write one of these days, the blood of Christian and Muslim children under the age of 10 must be used, and the cleric can mix the blood [into the dough] before or after dehydration. MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 354, citing Al Riyadh, March 10, 2002. Arab and other foreign media outlets have often disseminated stories about supposed Jewish plots for world domination, schemes to control financial institutions, and conspiracies to manipulate the media. Other popular themes have included “scholarly” claims of intrinsic religious corruption within Judaism, or pseudo-scientific reports suggesting that the Temple never stood in Jerusalem or that the Jews did not originate in ancient Israel, but rather were descended from non-indigenous peoples who usurped a country – Palestine – that never existed. The mainstream media in the United States is quick to denounce any perceived affronts to Arab or Islamic culture, and just as quick to condemn any alleged expressions of Jewish or Israeli chauvinism. But the media is reluctant to criticize antisemitic expressions from Arab or Muslim sources, draw any connection between Islamism and terrorism, acknowledge the history of Arab expansion and colonialism, or discuss the supremacist implications of jihad – even as it openly plays out in Europe. Rather, liberal pundits often wax dreamily poetic when discussing the so-called “golden age of Islam” or the myth of Islamic tolerance. Moreover, they tend to rationalize any antisemitic or anti-Western expressions in the Arab world as reactions to Israeli intransigence or American colonialism. In reality, there was no real sense of tolerance for “infidels” in the Arab-Muslim world. Historically, Jews in Arab lands were relegated to the status of dhimmi who often lived in ghettos, were endowed with few if any substantive rights, and were subject to the whim and whimsy of their hostile neighbors. Although many in the West believe that Jewish life was more tolerable through the ages in the Islamic lands, the general treatment of Jews there was in fact not much different than in Christian Europe, and sometimes was even worse. During the early Islamic period, for example, Jews were required to wear distinctive badges or metal seals around their necks, and starting in the 9th Century the Caliphate in Baghdad required Jews to wear the yellow badge – a practice that was later adopted in Christian Europe during the Middle Ages. Starting in the year 1005, the Jews of Egypt were required to wear bells on their garments, and in Medieval Baghdad they were often physically branded. In many Arab countries Jews were required to live in ghettos and were not permitted to use the same public bath houses as Muslims. At various times throughout Islamic history, Jews of the Mideast and North Africa were subjected to pogroms, massacres and forced conversions just as they were in Europe. Despite the fantasy of the “Golden Age of Spain” when Jews were supposedly free, equal and prosperous, Iberian Jewry often fared little better in Muslim Spain than in Christian Europe. The reality was famously evidenced by the experience of Maimonides. Despicable though the anti-Jewish policies of the Catholic Church may have been, the Rambam and his family were exiled from their native Cordoba not because of Christian persecution, but because the conquering Almohads gave the Jewish community the choice of conversion to Islam or death. This is not to downplay the severity of historical European antisemitism, which found expression in, among other things, the anti-Jewish legislation of the Fourth Lateran Council, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Spanish Expulsion, the Chelmnitzky massacres, the Pogroms and the Holocaust. However, for those who might use the Holocaust as a measuring stick to say that hatred of Jews was worse in Europe than in the Muslim world, one could argue that it was only the expression that was more severe, not the doctrinal hatred itself. And in this regard, one must consider Arab-Muslim complicity with the Nazis, particularly where, as in Bosnia, Muslim Waffen-SS Hanjar units recruited by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem assisted in exterminating Bosnian Jews. Moreover, in his testimony at Nuremberg, Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann’s deputy and Hauptsturmfuhrer of Slovakia and Hungary, reportedly described the Mufti was an advisor to Eichmann and “one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry.” In light of this history, any censure of Rabbi Yosef, who was born into dhimmitude in Iraq, can have no frame of reference absent a critical analysis of the traditionally precarious existence of Jews in the Islamic world. Those who wish to criticize Rabbi Yosef, or any other Sephardim or Mizrachim who lived in Muslim society, must first understand how the historical treatment of Jews under Islam molded their collective psyche. And when critical neophytes analyze the history, they must look beyond the revisionist myth of religious tolerance and instead focus on the harsh realities of jihad, dhimmitude, and the pervasive cultural denigration of the Jews and Judaism. Interestingly, Western Jews who buy into the myth of benevolent tolerance are generally secular liberals and typically not of Sephardic, Mizrachi or Yemeni ancestry. If they were, they would be more likely to know – either from their own experiences or those of their parents and grandparents – what Jewish life was really like in Arab lands. And the stark realities of that life preceded the current geopolitical tumult of the Mideast by centuries. Indeed, Maimonides in his Epistle to Yemen in the 12th Century addressed the issue of Arab intolerance and persecution at a time when the Jews of Yemen were subjected to gross abuse and unspeakable violations. This dark chapter in Arab-Jewish relations clearly predated the Arab-Israeli conflict, and certainly attenuates the assumptions of those who claim that Arab-Muslim hostility today stems solely from Israeli aggression and is not endemic to that society. Moreover, those familiar with the Quran know that the blueprint for dealing with Jews and Judaism is anything but benevolent, involving as it does the seminal account of the slaughter of the Jews of Yathrib (al-Medina). And the eschatology reflected in the Hadith speaks of the extermination of the Jews at the end of days. Against this backdrop, the experience of the Jews in Islamic society and Arab lands was typically perilous and often marked by social and economic repression, institutional indignities, and general discrimination. This reality is ignored by secular liberals, and also by cultural naifs who believe that interfaith dialogue will bring about greater understanding. However, the doctrinal differences between Judaism and Islam are vast. Theologically, Judaism incorporates the belief system of the Jewish People, and the concept of “peoplehood” implicates an identity combining ethnic and nationalistic components as well as religious ones. The Jewish religion is particular to the Jewish People and, consequently, it has no conversionary mission or imperative to impose its beliefs on other peoples. In contrast, Islam is a conversionary ideology that is in a perpetual state of conflict with those whom it considers infidels. And in the absence of something akin to the Reformation in Europe, it is questionable whether any amount of dialogue will bring about the philosophical change necessary to foster compatibility with western ideals or Jewish values. The western media’s refusal to acknowledge the theological divide is puzzling given its seeming preoccupation with denigrating traditional religious beliefs in its own cultural backyard. Mainstream journalists routinely lampoon conservative Christians as ignorant and bigoted, and often depict observant Jews as fanatical, right-wing zealots. Yet, they are reluctant to apply the term “jihadist” to Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter with ties to al-Qaeda, to identify as an Islamist terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab, the attempted Detroit plane bomber, or to examine the doctrinal underpinnings of the acts of either. The press instead takes its cue from President Obama, who refers to such terrorists as “extremists” so as to distance them from both the religious inspiration for their actions and their status as heroes amongst many within their faith community. Not surprisingly, the typical news analysis tends to ignore the religious motivations for their acts of terror, and instead focuses on “personal disaffection” or “loneliness” as mitigating factors. The media’s consistent refusal to acknowledge and condemn what is clearly religious-based terrorism leaves one to wonder whether its worldview is shaped by any affinity for western democratic values at all, or by a dogmatic political correctness that has become a dysfunctional secular religion. While one may certainly disagree with Rabbi Yosef’s remarks, one cannot deny the history that may well inform his viewpoint. Traditional Arab society never treated Jews with respect or tolerance as those concepts are understood in the West. Although Jews may be considered “People of the Book,” they are still considered infidels who occupy a dubious position within Islamic society. An objective review of the history shows that Arab-Muslim antipathy for Jews did not spontaneously arise in 1948 with the modern rebirth of Israel – any more than German antisemitism was created by the Nazis. And unless the Arab-Muslim world can change the way it regards Jews, and acknowledge their historic connection to and presence in the Land of Israel, there can never be true peace or acceptance, only a cold, Balkanized status quo. Matthew Hausman is an attorney in New York. April 26, 2010 Op-Ed Columnist Not Even in South Park? By ROSS DOUTHAT Two months before 9/11, Comedy Central aired an episode of “South Park” entitled “Super Best Friends,” in which the cartoon show’s foul-mouthed urchins sought assistance from an unusual team of superheroes. These particular superfriends were all religious figures: Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mormonism’s Joseph Smith, Taoism’s Lao-tse — and the Prophet Muhammad, depicted with a turban and a 5 o’clock shadow, and introduced as “the Muslim prophet with the powers of flame.” That was a more permissive time. You can’t portray Muhammad on American television anymore, as South Park’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, discovered in 2006, when they tried to parody the Danish cartoon controversy — in which unflattering caricatures of the prophet prompted worldwide riots — by scripting another animated appearance for Muhammad. The episode aired, but the cameo itself was blacked out, replaced by an announcement that Comedy Central had refused to show an image of the prophet. For Parker and Stone, the obvious next step was to make fun of the fact that you can’t broadcast an image of Muhammad. Two weeks ago, “South Park” brought back the “super best friends,” but this time Muhammad never showed his face. He “appeared” from inside a U-Haul trailer, and then from inside a mascot’s costume. These gimmicks then prompted a writer for the New York-based Web site revolutionmuslim.com to predict that Parker and Stone would end up like Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker murdered in 2004 for his scathing critiques of Islam. The writer, an American convert to Islam named Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, didn’t technically threaten to kill them himself. His post, and the accompanying photo of van Gogh’s corpse, was just “a warning ... of what will likely happen to them.” This passive-aggressive death threat provoked a swift response from Comedy Central. In last week’s follow-up episode, the prophet’s non-appearance appearances were censored, and every single reference to Muhammad was bleeped out. The historical record was quickly scrubbed as well: The original “Super Best Friends” episode is no longer available on the Internet. In a way, the muzzling of “South Park” is no more disquieting than any other example of Western institutions’ cowering before the threat of Islamist violence. It’s no worse than the German opera house that temporarily suspended performances of Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo” because it included a scene featuring Muhammad’s severed head. Or Random House’s decision to cancel the publication of a novel about the prophet’s third wife. Or Yale University Press’s refusal to publish the controversial Danish cartoons ... in a book about the Danish cartoon crisis. Or the fact that various Western journalists, intellectuals and politicians — the list includes Oriana Fallaci in Italy, Michel Houellebecq in France, Mark Steyn in Canada and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands — have been hauled before courts and “human rights” tribunals, in supposedly liberal societies, for daring to give offense to Islam. But there’s still a sense in which the “South Park” case is particularly illuminating. Not because it tells us anything new about the lines that writers and entertainers suddenly aren’t allowed to cross. But because it’s a reminder that Islam is just about the only place where we draw any lines at all. Across 14 on-air years, there’s no icon “South Park” hasn’t trampled, no vein of shock-comedy (sexual, scatalogical, blasphemous) it hasn’t mined. In a less jaded era, its creators would have been the rightful heirs of Oscar Wilde or Lenny Bruce — taking frequent risks to fillet the culture’s sacred cows. In ours, though, even Parker’s and Stone’s wildest outrages often just blur into the scenery. In a country where the latest hit movie, “Kick-Ass,” features an 11-year-old girl spitting obscenities and gutting bad guys while dressed in pedophile-bait outfits, there isn’t much room for real transgression. Our culture has few taboos that can’t be violated, and our establishment has largely given up on setting standards in the first place. Except where Islam is concerned. There, the standards are established under threat of violence, and accepted out of a mix of self-preservation and self-loathing. This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that “bravely” trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force. Happily, today’s would-be totalitarians are probably too marginal to take full advantage. This isn’t Weimar Germany, and Islam’s radical fringe is still a fringe, rather than an existential enemy. For that, we should be grateful. Because if a violent fringe is capable of inspiring so much cowardice and self-censorship, it suggests that there’s enough rot in our institutions that a stronger foe might be able to bring them crashing down. Home * World * U.S. * N.Y. / Region * Business * Technology * Science * Health * Sports * Opinion * Arts * Style * Travel * Jobs * Real Estate * Automobiles * Back to Top Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Search * Corrections * RSS * First Look * Help * Contact Us * Work for Us * Site Map Gene therapy proves effective for hemophilia B By Deena Beasley SAN DIEGO | Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:11pm EST (Reuters) - A single treatment with gene therapy, an experimental technique for fixing faulty genes, has been shown to boost output of a vital blood clotting factor, possibly offering a long-term solution for people with hemophilia B. Researchers said the same technology was also being studied as a treatment for hemophilia A, the far more common type of the inherited bleeding disorder. "It is a technique for potentially permanently curing patients," said Dr. Charles Abrams, American Society of Hematology secretary and associate chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Both safety and efficacy have held back the field of gene therapy. One experiment cured two French boys with a rare immune disorder but gave them leukemia in 2002, and an Arizona teenager died in a 1999 gene therapy experiment. The approach used by researchers at the University College London Cancer Institute and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, involved the use of a novel viral "vector," designed to target the liver specifically. The strategy involves replacing the defective gene that causes the bleeding disorder with a correct version delivered via the virus to the patient's liver cells - the only cells in the body capable of producing certain clotting factors missing or deficient in people with hemophilia. The factors are numbered using Roman numerals. The two main forms of the disease are hemophilia A, caused by a lack of clotting factor VIII, and hemophilia B, caused by a lack of clotting factor IX. Researchers have so far treated six men with severe hemophilia B who were producing clotting factor IX at less than 1 percent of normal levels. The general goal of current treatment with recombinant factor IX is to achieve factor levels greater than 1 percent of normal. Four of the six trial participants have stopped routine treatment and remain free of spontaneous bleeding. The other two have increased the interval between factor infusions to once every 10 days to two weeks from two to three times a week, said Dr. Andrew Davidoff, chairman of the department of surgery at St. Jude's and co-author of the study. HIGH COST FOR CURRENT TREATMENT Frequent treatments with manufactured factor IX, known as recombinant factor concentrates, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, making hemophilia a tempting target for gene therapy. The trial "is truly a landmark study," Dr. Katherine Ponder, hematology and oncology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial. "If further studies determine that this approach is safe, it may replace the cumbersome and expensive protein therapy currently used for patients with hemophilia B," she wrote. The trial results were published in the NEJM and reported on Saturday at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego. The six trial subjects were broken into three groups with each group receiving a different concentration of new genes. Factor IX levels in the first subject have remained at 2 percent for nearly two years, while the two patients treated with the highest dose have seen FIX levels rise to between 3 and 12 percent, researchers said. One high-dose subject developed elevated levels of transaminases, an indicator of possible liver damage, and another had a slight increase in liver enzymes. Both cases were resolved with steroids, the researchers said. Plans are to treat more patients with the highest dose used so far, and if research continues to succeed, the treatment could be widely available "in the next five years or so," said Dr. Amit Nathwani, co-lead study author of the Department of Hematology at UCL Cancer Institute in London. He also said the team was working to use the technique for treating hemophilia A. ISI Group analyst Mark Schoenebaum said the gene therapy could pose big competition for companies such as Biogen Idec that are producing recombinant factor concentrates. "This clearly presents a curveball to our (and much of Wall Street's) assumptions around the future of the hemophilia market," he said in an email to investors. The analyst said estimated sales of the hemophilia factors accounted for between $10 and $17 of his $125 price target for shares of Biogen, which closed at $112.95 on Friday. People with hemophilia bleed more following trauma than people without the disease, and those with severe disease may bleed spontaneously. Since the gene is carried on the X chromosome, hemophilia is almost exclusively a disease of men. But women can pass the gene to their offspring. Hemophilia has often been called the "Royal Disease" since it was carried by Britain's Queen Victoria and affected many of the royal families of Europe. Hemophilia B is much less common than hemophilia A. About one in five hemophilia patients has hemophilia B, according to the National Institutes of Health. The global market for Factor VIII products is about $5 billion, while the market for Factor IX is worth about $1 billion. Worldwide, about one in 5,000 men is born with hemophilia A and 1 in 25,000 men is born with hemophilia B each year. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Peter Cooney) Georgia: Europe wins a gold medal for defeatism Sarkozy's ‘peace in our time' deal is a reminder of what could happen if the EU wins more clout Gerard Baker To some, China's muscular domination of the Olympic medal table is a powerful allegory of the shifting balance of global power. A far better and more literal testimony to the collapse of the West may be seen in the distinctly weak-kneed response to Russian aggression in Georgia by what is still amusingly called the transatlantic alliance. Once again, the Europeans, and their friends in the pusillanimous wing of the US Left, have demonstrated that, when it come to those postmodern Olympian sports of synchronized self-loathing, team hand-wringing and lightweight posturing, they know how to sweep gold, silver and bronze. There's a routine now whenever some unspeakable act of aggression is visited upon us or our allies by murderous fanatics or authoritarian regimes. While the enemy takes a victory lap, we compete in a shameful medley relay of apologetics, defeatism and surrender. ` The initial reaction is almost always self-blame and an expression of sympathetic explanation for the aggressor's actions. In the Russian case this week, the conventional wisdom is that Moscow was provoked by the hot-headed President Saakashvili of Georgia. It was really all his fault, we are told. Vladimir Putin's mastery checkmates the West Michael Binyon says Russia has been biding its time - but its victory in Georgia has been brutal and brilliant What's more, the argument goes, the US and Europe had already laid the moral framework for Russia's invasion by our own acts of aggression in the past decade. Vladimir Putin was simply following the example of illegal intervention by the US and its allies in Kosovo and Iraq. It ought not to be necessary to point out the differences between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Mr Saakashvili's Georgia, but for those blinded by moral relativism, here goes - Georgia did not invade its neighbours or use chemical weapons on their people. Georgia did not torture and murder hundreds of thousands of its own citizens. Georgia did not defy international demands for a decade and ignore 18 UN Security Council resolutions to come clean about its weapons programmes. And unlike Iraq under Saddam, Georgia is led by a democratically elected president who has pushed this once dank backwater of the Soviet Union, birthplace of Stalin and Beria, towards liberal democracy and international engagement. The Kosovo analogy has a more resonant ring of plausibility to it and has been heavily exploited by the Russians in defence of their actions. But it too is specious. It is true that South Ossetia and Abkhazia, like Kosovo within Serbia, are ethnic-minority-majority regions within a state that they dislike. But that's where the parallel ends. Unlike Serbia, Georgia has not been conducting a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the people of these provinces. In the 1990s Serbia had firmly established its aggressive intentions towards its minorities with ugly genocidal wars against Croatia and Bosnia. And in any case the two Georgian enclaves have been patrolled by Russian “peacekeepers” for the past 15 years. We need to be morally clear about what is going on in Georgia. Perhaps Mr Saakashvili was a little reckless in seeking to stamp out the separatist guerrillas. But to suggest that he somehow got what he deserved is tantamount to saying that a woman who dresses in a miniskirt and high heels and gets drunk in a bar one night is asking to be raped. If shifting moral blame won't relieve us of our responsibilities then surely defeatism will. Whoever is right or wrong, the critics say, we can't do anything about it. In the past week, the familiar parade of clichés has been rolled out to explain why it is all hopeless. The Russian bear, pumped up by all that oil wealth, is reasserting power in its own backyard. The US and Europe, their energy sapped by endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, can only stand by and watch. There's something odd about listening to European governments speak about the futility of diplomacy. They are the ones who usually insist that military force alone can achieve little and who say that diplomacy must be given a chance. But now they seem to say that, since we can't stop Russia militarily, there is nothing else we can do. But we can make life very uncomfortable for Mr Putin. Russia is not the Soviet Union. Its recent (relative) prosperity depends on its continuing integration into the global economy. It sets great store by the recognition that it gains from a seat at the high table with the great powers in the G8. It wants to elevate that status farther by joining the World Trade Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Punitive measures will hurt us too, of course: Russia could cause trouble over Iran and holds an alarmingly large quantity of US official debt. It could play havoc with the West's energy supplies. The Europeans don't much like the idea of any of this. So this week they demonstrated the same sort of resolve that they showed in the Balkans in the early 1990s, when they stood by as genocide unfolded on their own continent. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, in his capacity as head pro tempore of the EU, came back from a trip to Moscow and Tbilisi, waving a piece of paper and acclaiming peace in our time. But the one-sided ceasefire that he negotiated was more or less dictated to him by Mr Putin. It not only left the Russian military in place in the disputed enclaves. It allowed them free rein to continue operations inside the rest of Georgia. That disastrous piece of European diplomacy finally seems to have stirred the US into tougher action. Goaded by John McCain, who has been brilliantly resolute in his measure of Russian intentions over the past few years, the Bush Administration at last dropped its credulous embrace of Mr Putin and upped the ante with direct military assistance to Georgia and threats of tougher diplomatic action. But we should never forget what Mr Sarkozy and his EU officials got up to this week. There can be no clearer indication of the perils that threaten the West if the EU gets its way and wins more clout in the world. This, remember, is the same EU that wants to take over foreign and security policy from member states, an institution that is always eager to pump itself up at the expense of democratic institutions in those member states, but which crumbles into puny submission when faced with authoritarian bullying overseas. It was a great Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the modern Olympic movement on the famous principle that “the important thing is not winning but taking part”. The EU today seems to have adapted that slogan to fit its own desired global role - the important thing is taking part and not winning. September 27, 1990 SPORTS OF THE TIMES SPORTS OF THE TIMES; If Hodges Managed These Mets By Dave Anderson When the Mets return to Shea Stadium tomorrow night, Bud Harrelson will sit at his desk under three photos of Gil Hodges on the walls around him. One photo shows the onetime Mets' manager with Casey Stengel and George Weiss. Another is a facial portrait. The third, above Harrelson's chair, is of Hodges, in a blue-sleeved sweatshirt, sitting thoughtfully at a desk and doing what Harrelson does now: making out a lineup card. ''That's my favorite,'' Harrelson will tell you. Gil Hodges is also Harrelson's favorite manager, if not the favorite manager of every Met fan who remembers 1969, the year the Miracle Mets won the World Series. And with Harrelson, the Mets' shortstop that year, now trying to guide the Mets to the National League East title under the inspiration of those Hodges photos, a fantasy question emerged: What if Gil Hodges were managing these Mets? ''I'm not sure a lot of stuff that happened to us in those years would apply now,'' Harrelson said. ''But I'm not saying his style wouldn't work. I've always thought his style was about 20 years ahead of his time.'' Hodges's time was too short. In 1972, two days before his 48th birthday, he died of a heart attack shortly before he would have begun his fifth season as the Mets' manager. ''Gil used a lot of psychology,'' Harrelson said. ''He would call you in for a one-on-one and get into your mind. Why you did certain things. Not to reprimand you, but to let you grow. He once told me, 'You're the strongest 147-pound ballplayer I ever saw.' He was just blowing my horn, but he made me feel like Charles Atlas.'' Husky and handsome, Hodges was really baseball's Charles Atlas, a quiet strongman whose size was silently intimidating. ''I was afraid of him; so was everybody else,'' Harrelson recalled. ''He knew who he had to coddle. He knew who he had to kick. If he were managing this team, I'm sure he would have confronted the guys who were saying things he wouldn't have liked.'' Joe Pignatano, the Mets' bullpen coach under Hodges, had a theory on how Hodges would deal with Darryl Strawberry's moods. ''Gil would just stare at Darryl; that would be enough,'' Pignatano said. ''I only heard Gil raise his voice once. The day after the Cleon Jones incident, he and Cleon were in his office with the door closed and we could hear Gil yelling, 'Look in that mirror and tell me if Cleon Jones is giving me 100 percent.' The way Cleon was yelling, I thought sure they were going to fight, but then the door opened and Cleon walked out.'' According to Tom Seaver, then the Mets' ace, several other players heard Gil Hodges raise his voice. ''I don't think there's any doubt there'd be more discipline on these Mets if Gil were the manager,'' Seaver said. ''His physical presence made you listen.'' Hodges's confrontation with Jones in 1969 occurred after the Mets' left fielder nonchalantly retrieved a two-base hit. ''Gil once told me that he was just going to the mound to take out the pitcher,'' recalled Frank Slocum, one of Hodges's best friends, then a National League executive and now the Baseball Alumni Team executive director. ''He told me he was walking with his head down and when he looked up, he realized he was almost at third base. He didn't want to turn back to the mound, so he kept walking. All he said to Cleon was, 'Are you hurt?' Cleon said, 'No.' Gil said, 'Come with me.' '' Hodges had other problems with Jones, who once left the field during batting practice without telling any of the coaches. ''I was standing at the batting cage with Gil when he said, 'One of my chicks is missing,' '' Slocum said. ''He went inside and told Cleon, 'That'll cost you $1,000.' When Cleon said, 'That doesn't bother me,' Gil said: 'Now it's $2,000. Let me know when I get to a number that impresses you.' But after Gil died, I remember Cleon saying he never realized how much Gil had done for him until Gil was gone. The softer Gil spoke, the more threatening he was.'' Had he lived and continued to manage, Hodges would be 66 now, the dean of dugout geniuses. ''I doubt Gil would still be managing,'' Slocum said. ''He might be a general manager. But if he were still managing the Mets, I don't think he would have tolerated Ron Darling's griping, especially when Darling wasn't getting anybody out. I think his approach with Strawberry would be that Straw is costing himself money with his sometimes moody behavior. But what Gil said to Straw would depend on what Straw said to him.'' Just as Hodges was Harrelson's favorite manager, Harrelson was one of Hodges's favorite players. ''Gil once told me, 'If I believed in captains, Bud Harrelson would be my captain,' '' Frank Slocum said. ''Of all the players Gil managed, I think he would have picked Harrelson as the one to be a manager.'' Photo: Gil Hodges (The New York Times) The Believer God bless Ayaan Hirsi Ali Bernard-Henri Lévy, The New Republic Published: Friday, February 08, 2008 Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the young woman of Somali origin, the former member of the Dutch Parliament, whom Islamist groups condemned to death three years ago. On that day in November 2004 when Dutch filmmaker and provocateur Theo van Gogh was murdered, she was designated, in a letter pinned with a knife to the corpse, as the killers' next target. Since then she has been forced to live as did writer Salman Rushdie for many years: stalked, hunted, sleeping in a different place every night, never allowed to rest. Why? For what crime was she sentenced to this martyrdom, this life lived on borrowed time? Because when she was an MP, she voted for a law to protect little girls from genital mutilation. Because she fought against the temptation to sectarianism that she, along with many others, believes is an insidious threat to democracy. Because she dared to speak out without taking the precautions imposed by the "culture of excuses"; to explain her rejection of this new version of fascism that we call radical Islamism. And because she had taken positions on "Islam as a doctrine" and its incompatibility with democracy, freedom, and equality: She believes that Islam must undergo a reformation if it is to become congruent with modernity. Her arguments of course provoked controversy, debate and criticism, but the fanatics interpreted them as the double blasphemy of incitement to apostasy--the supreme crime. In truth, Ayaan Hirsi Ali only invited us to reflect on the relationship between religion and state. In each case, she pleaded on behalf of the principle of the secular state, which she believes is one of the non-negotiable fundamentals established during the West's battles over democracy. She also reminded us of the inalienable right of all European citizens, inscribed in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights: the right of disbelief. Except, alas, according to the tenets of Islam, this creates a problem. Except that, according to many interpretations of Islamic law, this is considered the most unpardonable of crimes. And except that the West in general and the Dutch public in particular reacted to this affair in a very strange way. There were embarrassed statements insinuating that there was little difference between the "agitator" and her putative assassin, whose identity had been "wounded." Her neighbors in her apartment building had her evicted; her colleagues in the Dutch Parliament pushed her to resign her post; the Dutch authorities called into question the legitimacy of the naturalization process she completed in 1997. And now, though she is weary of being humiliated and rejected, of always being careful to cover her tracks and make the killers' mission more difficult, she is trying to travel within Europe, to the United States and elsewhere, to continue her work as an intellectual pleading the cause of Muslim women. But a few months ago the Dutch government announced that its police force would no longer ensure her security if she steps outside the Netherlands (in contrast to Scotland Yard, whose detectives made it a point of honor to protect Salman Rushdie, wherever he might be). On Feb. 10, Ayaan Hirsi Ali will attend a meeting of supporters at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. She was invited by various publications and associations--Charlie Hebdo, Liberation, ProChoix, la Regle du Jeu (I am executive editor of same) and SOS Racisme--that are not intimidated by Islamist provocations or the warnings issued by those who espouse the policy of appeasement. The following day, she will be awarded the Prix Simone de Beauvoir in honor of her spirited resistance to all forms of oppression. On Feb. 14, she will be in Brussels to take part in an initiative by European MPs who hope to pass a resolution that will ensure that all the institutions of the European Union protect this living symbol of Europe. (And it would be a shame if they're forced to create a special, ad hoc status for her and for all those who find themselves in the same situation.) France will soon assume the presidency of the European Union and will play a decisive role in this affair. Last year, in his speech accepting the presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy declared that "Everyone who has been persecuted by tyranny, dictatorship ... (and especially) all of the women around the world who have been martyred, France's pride and sense of duty are on your side." Clearly he must be affected by this heroine's battle for human rights and Enlightenment. I hope he will meet this great woman and use his authority to make sure that she has the inalienable right, as do all European citizens, to come and go as she pleases and to speak in complete safety. French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy is the author, most recently, of American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville and Ce Grand Cadavre a la Renverse. Translated from the French by Sara Sugihara. Close Copyright © 2007 The New Republic. All rights reserved. Mount Carmel Name Location Society Date of Death BARCAN, ABE 1-E-47-4-12 POLOTZKER WORKMENS BEN BARCAN, EDITH 1-E-47-4-16 POLOTZKER WORKMENS BEN BARCAN, SAM 3-B-7-5-4 ACKERMAN BENEVOLENT 6/22/1949 BARCAN, SAMUEL 1-E-19B-11-13 WORKMENS CIRCLE #2 7/26/1930 BARCAN, SAMUEL Section: 1 Block: E Map/Path: 19B Lot: Line: 11 Grave: 13 Society: WORKMENS CIRCLE #2 BARCAN, EDITH Section: 1 Block: E Map/Path: 47 Lot: Line: 4 Grave: 16 Society: POLOTZKER WORKMENS BEN Mount Hebran, Queens BARCAN, HARRY Block: 113 Reference: 2 Section: 10 Lot: Line: 8 Grave: 9 Society: WORKMENS CIRCLE Date of Death: 9/3/1955 March 2, 2010 Gowanus Canal Gets Superfund Status By MIREYA NAVARRO The Environmental Protection Agency designated the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn a Superfund site on Tuesday and announced plans to clean up more than a century’s worth of noxious pollutants there. The decision ended a contentious debate and was a blow to the Bloomberg administration, which had proposed a cleanup without such a designation. The city had argued that the label could set off legal battles with polluters, prolong the dredging operation and spook developers leery of the stigma of a Superfund listing. But in a conference call with reporters, Judith A. Enck, the E.P.A. administrator for the region, said the Superfund designation would guarantee the best result for residents and the environment and ensure that the polluters cover all the costs. “We believe that it would get us the most efficient and comprehensive cleanup,” Ms. Enck said. From Gowanus Bay to New York Harbor, the agency has found contamination along the entire length of the clouded 1.8-mile canal in a preliminary assessment, including pesticides, metals and the cancer-causing chemicals known as PCBs. The agency estimates that the project will last 10 to 12 years and cost $300 million to $500 million. The city estimated that its approach would take nine years. The E.P.A., which proposed the Superfund designation last April at the urging of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, made its decision after a public comment period that involved more than 50 meetings with city officials, developers, community groups and others. Nine other Superfund sites across the country were also designated on Tuesday. “It was the right thing to do,” said Marlene Donnelly, a leader of the neighborhood group Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus. “It’s the beginning of a plan to start the restorative process for the Gowanus area.” City officials expressed disappointment but struck a conciliatory tone and pledged to cooperate with the cleanup. “It’s disappointing,” said Marc La Vorgna, a spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “We had an innovative and comprehensive approach that was a faster route.” “But we are going to work closely with the E.P.A. because we share the same goal: a clean canal,” he added. Carved out of tidal wetlands and streams in the 1860s, the Gowanus evolved into a busy waterway for oil refineries, chemical plants, tanneries, manufactured gas plants and other heavy industry along its banks. Industrial waste and raw sewage gushed into the canal for over a century. Most of that flow has halted since the 1960s as maritime shipping faded. Today the 100-foot-wide canal is used for commercial and recreational purposes by neighborhoods bordering it, including Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. Yet even as kayakers glide alongside the banks and fishermen catch striped bass for sport at its mouth at Gowanus Bay — the fish are too contaminated to eat — residents complain about the odors from continuing discharges of sewage and unsightly debris from scrap metal yards and other industrial enterprises. The E.P.A. has already identified the city, the Navy and seven companies, including Consolidated Edison and National Grid, as potentially responsible for the past discharges. It is seeking additional information from at least 20 other companies so it can map out the financing of the cleanup. “This is a historical puzzle we’re putting together here,” Ms. Enck said. Caswell F. Holloway IV, a former mayoral aide who helped design an alternative cleanup plan for the Gowanus and is now the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, said he had no estimate of New York’s financial liability for what federal officials said included contamination from various facilities, including an asphalt plant and an incinerator in the area. He said the city would work with the E.P.A. to ensure that costs are recovered from all responsible parties. “The city has an obligation to ensure that the burden is shared fairly,” Mr. Holloway said. He noted that the administration had already committed $150 million to reducing odors and preventing sewer discharges and had shared the cost of a feasibility study for an environmental restoration project by the Army Corps of Engineers. E.P.A. officials said they saw those projects as complementary and expected them to continue. Mr. Holloway said it was uncertain how the Superfund designation would affect economic development in the area. One developer, Toll Brothers, said it would scrap its plan for a $250 million project with about 450 housing units and retailing space on three acres by the canal. “We wouldn’t be able to obtain financing to build, and we’d have difficulties obtaining insurance,” said David Von Spreckelsen, a senior vice president with the company, citing factors like uncertainty on how long the cleanup would take. But Gowanus Green, a $300 million project for 774 units of new housing in nine buildings as well as retailing and community facilities, mostly financed by the city, is going forward. “We’re in full support of the project, and we’ll work with the E.P.A.,” said Aaron Koffman, a spokesman for the Hudson Companies, one of the companies in the project’s consortium. Eager to preserve such development potential, the city had proposed an approach under which the federal agency would allow the polluters to pay for the cleanup voluntarily. But Ms. Enck said the city’s plan lacked “financial certainty” because it relied partly on federal allocations that would require Congressional approval. Agency officials also worried that having the Corps of Engineers and the E.P.A. both tackle the cleanup would complicate an already messy challenge. In advocating for a Superfund listing, Ms. Enck had rejected arguments that it would keep investors and lenders away. “Banks look at the environmental conditions of the properties,” she said at a meeting with reporters last week. “It is not a secret in Brooklyn that the Gowanus is contaminated. The notion that Superfund is going to create a stigma just doesn’t hold up.” Agency officials said the cleanup, which will focus chiefly on the sediment in the canal, had effectively begun, with sampling already under way. The timetable calls for completing the sampling and assessments of human and environmental risks by the end of the year. A full cleanup plan is to be drafted by 2014, with the work then unfolding over at least five years. Walter Mugdan, the agency’s regional Superfund director, said that most of the canal would probably be dredged. Additional steps include eliminating all sources of continuing contamination, like overflowing sewage and the migration of contaminants from groundwater under old industrial plants. A photograph that appeared earlier with this article was published in error. It showed Newtown Creek, not the Gowanus Canal. February 6th, 2010 12:01 pm Rating: • • • • • 7. An Emotional Response You can spend 30 years watching Broadway Plays, and see hundreds of plays a musicals, and why do you go? You go to embrace the human condition and to share an emotional response...too feel something you could not on your own. Perhaps this is what art great art does for us, in a city of art, theater on music. But it is rare for any piece to enshroud the audience with a collauge emotional explorations as Hair does. It brings tears or joy and frustration to an audience that is encourage to share in the living experience. It is interest that currently Kadinsky's have recently been displayed at the Guggenheim, because it seems to me that as an artist, perhaps more than any other, he worked his entire career to try to expose the human soul in color and abstraction in a fashion that the Musical Hair so much exceeds with. I believe this production of Hair to be greatest theater experience of my lifetime, and you shouldn't miss it because will make you a greater, deeper person when you leave the theater than the person you were when you entered. — mrbrklyn, Brooklyn October 11, 2011 In Seeking Rate Increases in New York, Health Insurers Fight to Keep Secrets By NINA BERNSTEIN Major health insurance companies seeking steep premium increases in New York have submitted memos to state officials to justify the higher rates. Now they are fighting to keep the memos from the public, saying they include trade secrets that competitors could use against them. “How these companies are setting these rates is vital for the public to know, and should not be treated like a state secret,” Benjamin M. Lawsky, the state superintendent of financial services, said on Tuesday. “Transparency will promote healthy competition and enable the public to rigorously comment on proposed rates, two goals that all of us should favor.” Mr. Lawsky, whose new agency oversees the state insurance division, has ordered that the memos be made public. His decision, which will go into effect by the end of November unless the companies obtain a court injunction, ends a longstanding policy that exempted the insurance companies from public access under a “trade secret” exception. The decision followed a battle by a consumer advocacy coalition, Health Care for All New York, which had first sought information for a policyholder in Queens who faced a 76 percent increase in his family’s Emblem Health premium. (The fee was later raised by 270 percent.) Last year, the then-State Insurance Department gained new power to reject rate increases proposed for about three million residents covered by individual and small-group policies. It has since been flooded with consumer protests over proposed premium increases, many of them double-digit percentages. The department does not control rates for customers in large-group plans. In a typical message, an unemployed 61-year-old, informed that Aetna wanted to raise her $1,932 monthly premium as much as 19.7 percent, wrote: “I worry every day how I will keep a roof over my head in the future. My teeth are all broken and I cannot afford to get them fixed because all my $$ is going to Aetna. So actually you could say that I am neglecting my health in order to be able to pay for my insurance.” Aetna, like other carriers, has said premium increases are driven by the actual cost of health care. But consumer advocates dispute such assertions, while complaining that it is hard to challenge the increases without access to the company filings. Mr. Lawsky’s decision would add New York to a list of at least 12 states that make insurance company filings public. It fits with an Obama administration effort, part of the federal health care reform, to curb health care costs through more oversight and transparency when insurance rates are set. The companies, notified of Mr. Lawsky’s decision in late September, had 10 days to file objections. Two companies, Atlantis Health Plan and Humana, have not done so. But 10 others contended in letters last week that disclosure would provide competitors with an unfair advantage, possibly reducing competition and raising prices even higher. “This matter is of critical importance to us,” United Health/Oxford wrote Oct. 7, calling the information “proprietary.” Aetna wrote that “public disclosure in this format will provide ready and easy access to comprehensive pricing, product and marketing strategies,” and warned of “substantial and irreparable injury to Aetna.” Another company, Independent Health, said it had spent “well over $700,000 developing the trade secret documents” and estimated that the value of keeping them confidential was much higher. Moreover, other companies argued, the filings are too technical to be understood by consumers. “Several of the exhibits to the rate application as well as the actuarial memorandum contain not only trade secrets as noted above, but esoteric actuarial pricing precepts best understood by fellow actuaries and health plan competitors,” Sean M. Doolan, a lawyer representing Excellus, Empire, Connecticut General, and Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan wrote to state officials. “These documents, often speaking of concepts such as morbidity and anti-selection, could cause not only confusion, but also unnecessary alarm to the layman policyholder.” Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and a founder of Health Care for All New York, a coalition of 100 groups working for more affordable medical care, called such concerns “patronizing” and noted that her coalition had hired its own actuaries. “The only way the public will find out whether these outlandish price hikes are justified is if we can see the underpinnings,” she said. “They would like to have us ignorant. What they are saying to us, by opposing the disclosure of why they think their rate increases are justified, is that they want to keep us uninformed consumers.” This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: October 13, 2011 An article on Wednesday about some health insurers’ opposition to New York State’s decision to release justifications of their proposed increases misidentified, in some editions, the month in which insurers were notified of that decision. It was in late September, not on Oct. 3. Earliest known Hebrew text in Proto-Canaanite script discovered in area where David slew Goliath Discovery of oldest Judaic city fortress proof of United Monarchy Jerusalem, October 30, 2008 - The earliest known Hebrew text written in a Proto-Canaanite script has been discovered by Hebrew University archaeologists in an ancient city in the area where David slew Goliath – the earliest Judean city found to date. The 3,000 year old finding is thought to be the most significant archaeological discovery in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls – predating them by 1,000 years. The ostracon (pottery shard inscribed with writing in ink) comprises five lines of text divided by black lines and measures 15 x 15 cm. and was found at excavations of a 10th century B.C.E. fortress - the oldest known Judaic city. The ostracon was found lying on the floor inside a building near the city gate of the site, known as the Elah Fortress at Khirbet Qeiyafa. Excavations are being led by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, the Yigal Yadin Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his partner Saar Ganur, in partnership with Foundation Stone, a non-profit educational organization which works to provide a contemporary voice to ancient stories. The excavations and analysis are also being supported by J.B. Silver and the Brennan Foundation. Why is this inscription so special? Carbon-14 dating of organic material found with the ostracon, administered by Oxford University, along with pottery analysis dates this inscription to the time of King David ca. 3,000 years ago – predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by approximately a millennium, and placing it earlier than the famed Gezer Calendar. It is hoped the text inscribed on the 'Qeiyafa Ostracon' will serve as an anchor in our understanding of the development of all alphabetic scripts. While the inscription has yet to be deciphered, initial interpretation indicates the text was part of a letter and contains the roots of the words "judge", "slave" and "king". This may indicate that this is a legal text that could provide insights into Hebrew law, society and beliefs. Archaeologists say that it was clearly written as a deliberate message by a trained scribe. What is the Elah Fortress? Dating to the 10th century B.C.E., the Elah Fortress is the earliest known fortified city of the biblical period in Israel. Excavations began on the site in June 2008. Comprising 23 dunams [2.3 hectares], the Elah Fortress (Khirbet Qeiyafa) was situated on the border between Philistia and the Kingdom of Judea (5 kilometers south of current day Bet Shemesh.). It is thought to have been a major strategic checkpoint guarding the main road from Philistia and the Coastal Plain to Jerusalem, which was just a day's walk away. Nearly 600 square meters of the Elah Fortress have so far been unearthed. Surrounded by a 700 meter-long massive city wall, the fortress was built with megalithic stones - some weighing four to five tons. The city wall is four meters wide, constructed with casemates. Archaeologists estimate that 200,000 tons of rock were hewn, moved and used in the construction of these fortifications. A four-chambered gate, 10.5 meters across, is the dominant feature of the massive fortifications. Further excavations will reveal whether it is really six chambers and whether there are other gates. The larger rocks in the gate structure weigh five to eight tons. To date, only four percent of the site has been excavated, promising many more incredible discoveries in the remaining 96 percent in the future. How do we know this is a Judean fortress? The early Hebrew ostracon, Judean pottery similar to that found at other Israelite settlements, and the absence of pig bones among the animal bones found at the site all point to this fortress being a city of the Kingdom of Judea. Elah Fortress proof of United Monarchy The Elah Fortress archaeological site could prove the existence of the United Monarchy, which scholars often question ever existed. The artifacts found at the site thus far all indicate that there was most likely a strong king and central government in Jerusalem - earlier than any discovered until now - rather than a number of small villages scattered throughout Judea. This would verify descriptions and narratives found in Samuel and Chronicles. Over 100 jar handles bear distinct impressions which may indicate a link to royal vessels. Such a large quantity of this feature found in one small locale is unprecedented. David & Goliath The site of Khirbet Qeiyafa is situated among four biblical cities in Judea's inheritance chronicled in the Book of Joshua 35:15 - Azeka, Socho, Yarmut and Adulam. The biblical narrative located the battle between David and Goliath between Socho and Azeka. According to legend, David selected five stones from the nearby Elah Creek with which to slay Goliath. According to Prof. Garfinkel, this is the only site in Israel where one can investigate the historical King David. "The chronology and geography of Khirbet Qeiyafa create a unique meeting point between the mythology, history, historiography and archaeology of Kind David." The excavations and analysis are also being supported by J.B. Silver, The Philip I. and Muriel M. Berman Center for Biblical Archaeology and the Brennan Foundation. web stats analysis February 19, 2013 A Digital Shift on Health Data Swells Profits in an Industry By JULIE CRESWELL It was a tantalizing pitch: come get a piece of a $19 billion government “giveaway.” The approach came in 2009, in a presentation to doctors by Allscripts Healthcare Solutions of Chicago, a well-connected player in the lucrative business of digital medical records. That February, after years of behind-the-scenes lobbying by Allscripts and others, legislation to promote the use of electronic records was signed into law as part of President Obama’s economic stimulus bill. The rewards, Allscripts suggested, were at hand. But today, as doctors and hospitals struggle to make new records systems work, the clear winners are big companies like Allscripts that lobbied for that legislation and pushed aside smaller competitors. While proponents say new record-keeping technologies will one day reduce costs and improve care, profits and sales are soaring now across the records industry. At Allscripts, annual sales have more than doubled from $548 million in 2009 to an estimated $1.44 billion last year, partly reflecting daring acquisitions made on the bet that the legislation would be a boon for the industry. At the Cerner Corporation of Kansas City, Mo., sales rose 60 percent during that period. With money pouring in, top executives are enjoying Wall Street-style paydays. None of that would have happened without the health records legislation that was included in the 2009 economic stimulus bill — and the lobbying that helped produce it. Along the way, the records industry made hundreds of thousands of dollars of political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. In some cases, the ties went deeper. Glen E. Tullman, until recently the chief executive of Allscripts, was health technology adviser to the 2008 Obama campaign. As C.E.O. of Allscripts, he visited the White House no fewer than seven times after President Obama took office in 2009, according to White House records. Mr. Tullman, who left Allscripts late last year after a boardroom power struggle, characterized his activities in Washington as an attempt to educate lawmakers and the administration. “We really haven’t done any lobbying,” Mr. Tullman said in an interview. “I think it’s very common with every administration that when they want to talk about the automotive industry, they convene automotive executives, and when they want to talk about the Internet, they convene Internet executives.” Between 2008 and 2012, a time of intense lobbying in the area around the passage of the legislation and how the rules for government incentives would be shaped, Mr. Tullman personally made $225,000 in political contributions. While tens of thousands of those dollars went to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, money was also being sprinkled toward Senator Max Baucus, the Democratic senator from Montana who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Jay D. Rockefeller, the Democrat from West Virginia who heads the Commerce Committee. Mr. Tullman said his recent personal contributions to various politicians had largely been driven by his interest in supporting President Obama and in seeing his re-election. Cerner’s lobbying dollars doubled to nearly $400,000 between 2006 and last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. While its political action committee contributed a little to some Democrats in 2008, including Senator Baucus, its contributions last year went almost entirely to Republicans, with a large amount going to the Mitt Romney campaign. Current and former industry executives say that big digital records companies like Cerner, Allscripts and Epic Systems of Verona, Wis., have reaped enormous rewards because of the legislation they pushed for. “Nothing that these companies did in my eyes was spectacular,” said John Gomez, the former head of technology at Allscripts. “They grew as a result of government incentives.” Executives at smaller records companies say the legislation cemented the established companies’ leading positions in the field, making it difficult for others to break into the business and innovate. Until the 2009 legislation, growth at the leading records firms was steady; since then, it has been explosive. Annual sales growth at Cerner, for instance, has doubled to 20 percent from 10 percent. “We called it the Sunny von Bülow bill. These companies that should have been dead were being put on machines and kept alive for another few years,” said Jonathan Bush, co-founder of the cloud-based firm Athenahealth and a first cousin to former President George W. Bush. “The biggest players drew this incredible huddle around the rule-makers and the rules are ridiculously favorable to these companies and ridiculously unfavorable to society.” This industry, which was pioneered in the late 1970s, first gained widespread attention in 2004 when President Bush in his State of the Union speech called for digitizing national health records. “After that, every technology C.E.O. wanting a piece of health care would have visited me every day if I had let them,” said David Brailer, whom President Bush appointed as the nation’s first health information czar. Over the next few years, Cerner and many of the other health care data companies increased their presence on Capitol Hill. The records systems sold by the biggest vendors have their fans, who argue that, among other things, the systems ease prescribing medications electronically. But these systems also have many critics, who contend that they can be difficult to use, cannot share patient information with other systems and are sometimes adding hours to the time physicians spend documenting patient care. “On a really good day, you might be able to call the system mediocre, but most of the time, it’s lousy,” said Michael Callaham, the chairman of the department of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, which eight months ago turned on its $160 million digital records system from Epic. Michael Blum, the hospital’s chief medical information officer, said a majority of doctors there like the Epic system. Whatever the case, the legislation has been a windfall to top executives at the leading health records companies. Neal L. Patterson, who grew up on a farm near Manchester, Okla., population 100, co-founded Cerner in 1979. As Cerner’s sales have soared in recent years, so have Mr. Patterson’s fortunes. From 2007 to 2011, he received more than $21 million in total compensation, according to the executive compensation research firm Equilar, and his stake in the company is worth $1 billion. In recent years, Mr. Patterson and his wife, Jeanne Lillig-Patterson, who ran as a Republican for Congress in 2004, have emerged as social and business leaders in the Kansas City, Mo., area. Mr. Patterson is also co-owner of a real estate development firm whose ventures include a 1,200-acre community near Kansas City called the Village of Loch Lloyd, featuring a Tom Watson-designed golf course. A spokeswoman for Cerner said Mr. Patterson was unavailable for comment. The medical records industry did not have much of a presence in Washington before President Bush highlighted it in 2004. Then in November that year, the industry created its first association, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society EHR Vendor Association, to make the case for electronic records. Its founding members included Allscripts, Cerner and Epic. Four years later, in December 2008, H. Stephen Lieber, chief executive of the group, wrote an open letter to President-elect Obama calling for a minimum government investment of $25 billion to help hospitals and physicians adopt electronic records. The industry ultimately got at least $19 billion in federal and state money. In the months after that windfall arrived, sales climbed for leading vendors as hospitals and physicians scrambled to buy systems to meet tight timetables to collect the incentive dollars. At Allscripts, Mr. Tullman soon announced what looked like a game-changing deal: the acquisition of another records company, Eclipsys, for $1.3 billion. “We are at the beginning of what we believe will be the fastest transformation of any industry in U.S. history,” Mr. Tullman said when the deal was announced. Last spring, some of the Eclipsys board members left after a power struggle; Mr. Tullman left in December. He is now at a company he co-founded that focuses on solar energy — another area that, after Obama administration and Congress expanded government incentives in the 2009 stimulus bill, has been swept by a gold-rush mentality, too. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: February 20, 2013 An earlier version of this article omitted part of the name of the institution that employs Michael Callaham and Michael Blum. It is the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, not the San Francisco Medical Center. print jpost Print Edition Photo by: Gil Zohar The Hurva’s symbolism By JPOST EDITORIAL 14/03/2010 Twice destroyed and twice rebuilt, the Hurva synagogue is a symbol of the Jewish people’s tenacious insistence on returning to its rightful land against all odds. A dedication ceremony will be held today, the eve of the first day of Nissan, for the Hurva (literally “ruin”) Synagogue, located in the middle of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. More than just a house of prayer, the Hurva was a venue for key historical events – Herzl’s visit to Jerusalem, a recruitment ceremony for Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s Jewish Legion, the honoring of pro-Zionist British High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel – leading to the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty. It symbolizes, perhaps more than any other site, the Jewish people’s yearnings to return to its homeland. It is concrete proof that Judaism cannot be reduced solely to an abstract religious faith devoid of national aspirations, as some – most notably German Jews of the the 19th century and contemporary Jewish anti-Zionists – attempted to claim. While the Western Wall has been the focal point of prayers for redemption, the Hurva has been at the center of Jewish activism to maintain a presence in the Land of Israel. Already in the Second Century CE, less than a hundred years after the destruction of the Second Temple and the end of Jewish sovereignty, a synagogue existed on the Hurva site. During the Byzantine era it was here that a road leading to the Jewish Quarter and to the Temple Mount broke off from the main market plaza known as the Cardo. In the 13th century it was called the Ashkenazi compound by European Jews who had “returned” to their homeland. But Jews faced constant opposition. In Jerusalem, which was known to have a special religious meaning for Jews, a Muslim decree was strictly enforced. According to historian Arie Morgenstern, Muslims wanted “to prevent, heaven forbid, the realization of Jewish hopes regarding the prophecies that foresaw the return to Zion and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.” Nevertheless, at the end of the 17th century, the Muslim political leadership gave Jews permission to build after the existing Ashkenazi synagogue collapsed. Just before 1700, driven by belief in an imminent messianic redemption, Rabbi Judah the Pious gathered about 1,500 followers from Moravia and Germany and left for Jerusalem to erect a house of prayer. But after the rabbi’s sudden death’ his demoralized followers were unable to defray their many debts. In 1720, frustrated Muslim creditors set fire to the synagogue, expelled the Ashkenazi community and forbid them to return. Still, Jewish aspirations could not be extinguished. A century later, a new religio-nationalist revival was born – under the leadership of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Shklov, one of the most outstanding students of the Vilna Gaon. He saw the rebuilding of the Hurva as having kabbalistic significance – a tikkun that would lead to the rebuilding of the entire city, a precursor to the arrival of the Messiah. Thanks to British and Austrian diplomatic assistance, various geopolitical upheavals and funds from Sir Moses Montefiore, the Rothschilds and communities as far-flung as St. Petersburg, Baghdad, Cairo and India, building began in 1855. The Ottoman sultan’s own architect, Assad Effendi, conceived an audacious project that dominated the skyline at a time when non-Muslim houses of prayer were to show deference to Mosques. From the time it was finished in 1864 until it was blown up by the Jordanian Legion during the 1948 War of Independence, the Hurva was undoubtedly the most impressive synagogue in the land of Israel. A harbinger of Jewish sovereignty, construction coincided with a renewed influx of Jews (in 1860 there was a Jewish majority in Jerusalem), and its destruction marked the establishment of a Jewish state. FOR 19 years, until the Six Day War, the Hurva lay desolate. And even after Israel gained control over Jerusalem and ensured freedom of worship for all faiths, fear of disrupting the delicate religious equilibrium paralyzed efforts to rebuild the ruins – until agreement was reached that Effendi’s edifice would be restored, thus maintaining the status quo. Twice destroyed and twice rebuilt, the Hurva is a symbol of the Jewish people’s tenacious insistence on returning to its rightful land against all odds. To name something that is built a “ruin” reveals a stubborn unwillingness to accept the present reality as unassailable. This refusal to be deterred by setbacks, this unfailing hope for redemption – whether physical or spiritual – is the secret of the miracle that is the Jewish state. By NICHOLAS WADE Published: March 1, 2010 As with any other species, human populations are shaped by the usual forces of natural selection, like famine, disease or climate. A new force is now coming into focus. It is one with a surprising implication that for the last 20,000 years or so, people have inadvertently been shaping their own evolution. The force is human culture, broadly defined as any learned behavior, including technology. The evidence of its activity is the more surprising because culture has long seemed to play just the opposite role. Biologists have seen it as a shield that protects people from the full force of other selective pressures, since clothes and shelter dull the bite of cold and farming helps build surpluses to ride out famine. Because of this buffering action, culture was thought to have blunted the rate of human evolution, or even brought it to a halt, in the distant past. Many biologists are now seeing the role of culture in a quite different light. Although it does shield people from other forces, culture itself seems to be a powerful force of natural selection. People adapt genetically to sustained cultural changes, like new diets. And this interaction works more quickly than other selective forces, “leading some practitioners to argue that gene-culture co-evolution could be the dominant mode of human evolution,” Kevin N. Laland and colleagues wrote in the February issue of Nature Reviews Genetics. Dr. Laland is an evolutionary biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The idea that genes and culture co-evolve has been around for several decades but has started to win converts only recently. Two leading proponents, Robert Boyd of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Peter J. Richerson of the University of California, Davis, have argued for years that genes and culture were intertwined in shaping human evolution. “It wasn’t like we were despised, just kind of ignored,” Dr. Boyd said. But in the last few years, references by other scientists to their writings have “gone up hugely,” he said. The best evidence available to Dr. Boyd and Dr. Richerson for culture being a selective force was the lactose tolerance found in many northern Europeans. Most people switch off the gene that digests the lactose in milk shortly after they are weaned, but in northern Europeans the descendants of an ancient cattle-rearing culture that emerged in the region some 6,000 years ago the gene is kept switched on in adulthood. Lactose tolerance is now well recognized as a case in which a cultural practice drinking raw milk has caused an evolutionary change in the human genome. Presumably the extra nutrition was of such great advantage that adults able to digest milk left more surviving offspring, and the genetic change swept through the population. This instance of gene-culture interaction turns out to be far from unique. In the last few years, biologists have been able to scan the whole human genome for the signatures of genes undergoing selection. Such a signature is formed when one version of a gene becomes more common than other versions because its owners are leaving more surviving offspring. From the evidence of the scans, up to 10 percent of the genome some 2,000 genes shows signs of being under selective pressure. These pressures are all recent, in evolutionary terms most probably dating from around 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, in the view of Mark Stoneking, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Biologists can infer the reason for these selective forces from the kinds of genes that are tagged by the genome scans. The roles of most of the 20,000 or so genes in the human genome are still poorly understood, but all can be assigned to broad categories of likely function depending on the physical structure of the protein they specify. By this criterion, many of the genes under selection seem to be responding to conventional pressures. Some are involved in the immune system, and presumably became more common because of the protection they provided against disease. Genes that cause paler skin in Europeans or Asians are probably a response to geography and climate. But other genes seem to have been favored because of cultural changes. These include many genes involved in diet and metabolism and presumably reflect the major shift in diet that occurred in the transition from foraging to agriculture that started about 10,000 years ago. Amylase is an enzyme in the saliva that breaks down starch. People who live in agrarian societies eat more starch and have extra copies of the amylase gene compared with people who live in societies that depend on hunting or fishing. Genetic changes that enable lactose tolerance have been detected not just in Europeans but also in three African pastoral societies. In each of the four cases, a different mutation is involved, but all have the same result that of preventing the lactose-digesting gene from being switched off after weaning. Many genes for taste and smell show signs of selective pressure, perhaps reflecting the change in foodstuffs as people moved from nomadic to sedentary existence. Another group under pressure is that of genes that affect the growth of bone. These could reflect the declining weight of the human skeleton that seems to have accompanied the switch to settled life, which started some 15,000 years ago. A third group of selected genes affects brain function. The role of these genes is unknown, but they could have changed in response to the social transition as people moved from small hunter-gatherer groups a hundred strong to villages and towns inhabited by several thousand, Dr. Laland said. “It’s highly plausible that some of these changes are a response to aggregation, to living in larger communities,” he said. Though the genome scans certainly suggest that many human genes have been shaped by cultural forces, the tests for selection are purely statistical, being based on measures of whether a gene has become more common. To verify that a gene has indeed been under selection, biologists need to perform other tests, like comparing the selected and unselected forms of the gene to see how they differ. Dr. Stoneking and his colleagues have done this with three genes that score high in statistical tests of selection. One of the genes they looked at, called the EDAR gene, is known to be involved in controlling the growth of hair. A variant form of the EDAR gene is very common in East Asians and Native Americans, and is probably the reason that these populations have thicker hair than Europeans or Africans. Still, it is not obvious why this variant of the EDAR gene was favored. Possibly thicker hair was in itself an advantage, retaining heat in Siberian climates. Or the trait could have become common through sexual selection, because people found it attractive in their partners. A third possibility comes from the fact that the gene works by activating a gene regulator that controls the immune system as well as hair growth. So the gene could have been favored because it conferred protection against some disease, with thicker hair being swept along as a side effect. Or all three factors could have been at work. “It’s one of the cases we know most about, and yet there’s a lot we don’t know,” Dr. Stoneking said. The case of the EDAR gene shows how cautious biologists have to be in interpreting the signals of selection seen in the genome scans. But it also points to the potential of the selective signals for bringing to light salient events in human prehistory as modern humans dispersed from the ancestral homeland in northeast Africa and adapted to novel environments. “That’s the ultimate goal,” Dr. Stoneking said. “I come from the anthropological perspective, and we want to know what the story is.” With archaic humans, culture changed very slowly. The style of stone tools called the Oldowan appeared 2.5 million years ago and stayed unchanged for more than a million years. The Acheulean stone tool kit that succeeded it lasted for 1.5 million years. But among behaviorally modern humans, those of the last 50,000 years, the tempo of cultural change has been far brisker. This raises the possibility that human evolution has been accelerating in the recent past under the impact of rapid shifts in culture. Some biologists think this is a possibility, though one that awaits proof. The genome scans that test for selection have severe limitations. They cannot see the signatures of ancient selection, which get washed out by new mutations, so there is no base line by which to judge whether recent natural selection has been greater than in earlier times. There are also likely to be many false positives among the genes that seem favored. But the scans also find it hard to detect weakly selected genes, so they may be picking up just a small fraction of the recent stresses on the genome. Mathematical models of gene-culture interaction suggest that this form of natural selection can be particularly rapid. Culture has become a force of natural selection, and if it should prove to be a major one, then human evolution may be accelerating as people adapt to pressures of their own creation. New Guidelines for Potassium Replacement in Clinical Practice A Contemporary Review by the National Council on Potassium in Clinical Practice Jay N. Cohn, MD; Peter R. Kowey, MD; Paul K. Whelton, MD; L. Michael Prisant, MD Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:2429-2436. ABSTRACT This article is the result of a meeting of the National Council on Potassium in Clinical Practice. The Council, a multidisciplinary group comprising specialists in cardiology, hypertension, epidemiology, pharmacy, and compliance, was formed to examine the critical role of potassium in clinical practice. The goal of the Council was to assess the role of potassium in terms of current medical practice and future clinical applications. The primary outcome of the meeting was the development of guidelines for potassium replacement therapy. These guidelines represent a consensus of the Council members and are intended to provide a general approach to the prevention and treatment of hypokalemia. INTRODUCTION Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References In recent years, studies of the potential pathogenetic role of potassium deficiency in various medical conditions have underscored the importance of preventing or correcting this deficiency. Although it has long been established that the maintenance of normal serum potassium is essential in reducing the risk of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, accumulating evidence suggests that the increased intake of potassium can also lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke. Few clinicians attempt to monitor and augment potassium stores on a routine basis. One reason may be the inconvenience of accurately measuring total body potassium, which entails a 24-hour urinary collection rather than a rapid laboratory serum measurement. Another reason is the practical difficulty of achieving and maintaining optimal potassium levels. Therefore, many clinicians may not attempt to remedy subnormal potassium levels except in high-risk patients. The current lack of consensus on how to prevent and treat hypokalemia has led to the neglect of a wide range of situations in which increasing potassium intake might help prevent sequelae of cardiovascular disease. The multifactorial and interactive mechanisms that are stimulated by hypertension and even more so by heart failure, which mandate the introduction of drugs that disrupt electrolyte homeostasis, emphasize the serious role of potassium. This article reviews contemporary thinking on potassium in clinical practice. Of the total body potassium content (about 3500 mmol [mEq]), 90% is sequestered within cells.1 This compartmentalization depends on active transport through the cell membrane by a sodium-potassium pump, which maintains an intracellular cation ratio of 1:10. Normal serum potassium levels are considered to lie roughly between 3.6 and 5.0 mmol/L. The loss of just 1% (35 mmol) of total body potassium content would seriously disturb the delicate balance between intracellular and extracellular potassium and would result in profound physiologic changes. On the other hand, the presence of hypokalemia (ie, serum levels <3.6 mmol/L) is not necessarily synonymous with whole-body potassium deficiency, because such a small percentage of the total body stores is present in extracellular fluid. Whereas it is generally accepted that diuretic therapy can decrease serum potassium to hypokalemic levels, the subtler effects of inadequate dietary potassium are less well known. For instance, although young adults may consume up to 3400 mg (85 mmol) of potassium per day, many elderly individuals, particularly those living alone or those who are disabled may not have a sufficient amount of potassium in their diet. People who eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables tend to have a high potassium intake of approximately 8000 to 11,000 mg/d (200-250 mEq). Urban whites typically consume approximately 2500 mg (62.5 mEq) of potassium daily. In contrast, many African Americans have low intakes of about 1000 mg (25 mEq) per day.1 The daily minimum requirement of potassium is considered to be approximately 1600 to 2000 mg (40-50 mmol or mEq). Factors that affect potassium intake include the type of diet consumed (Table 1), age, race, and socioeconomic status. View this table: [in this window] [in a new window] Table 1. Foods High in Potassium* CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF POTASSIUM DEPLETION Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Potassium depletion is one of the most common electrolyte abnormalities encountered in clinical practice. More than 20% of hospitalized patients have hypokalemia, widely defined as a serum potassium level of less than 3.5 mmol/L. Low serum (or plasma) concentrations of potassium may occur in up to 40% of outpatients treated with thiazide diuretics.2 Because the kidneys are the major regulators of external potassium homeostasis, accounting for approximately 80% of potassium transit from the body, renal dysfunction can result in gross abnormalities in serum potassium levels.1 Transcellular potassium homeostasis depends to a large extent on acid-base balance.1, 3 Acidosis stimulates cellular efflux of potassium from cells, resulting in hyperkalemia, whereas alkalosis stimulates influx of potassium, resulting in hypokalemia, without a simultaneous alteration in total body potassium. Increases in insulin or catecholamines can also stimulate cells to import potassium and export sodium. In patients with type 2 diabetes, increases in glucose or insulin can affect potassium homeostasis. Stimulation of {beta}2-adrenergic receptors by sympathomimetic drugs (eg, decongestants and bronchodilators) can temporarily reduce serum potassium. A standard dose of nebulized albuterol reduces serum potassium by 0.2 to 0.4 mmol/L. A second dose administered within 1 hour reduces it by approximately 1 mmol/L.2 {beta}2-Blockade, on the other hand, increases serum potassium. Overt hypokalemia may be diagnosed when the serum potassium level is less than 3.6 mmol/L. Potential causes include diuretic therapy, inadequate dietary potassium intake, high dietary sodium intake, and hypomagnesemia (Table 2). In most cases, hypokalemia is secondary to drug treatment, particularly diuretic therapy (Table 3).2 Diuretics inhibit chloride-associated sodium reabsorption in the kidney, creating a favorable electrochemical gradient for potassium secretion.2, 4 The degree of hypokalemia is directly related to the dose and half-life of the diuretic administered.5 Hypokalemia occurs infrequently in patients with uncomplicated hypertension who take a diuretic but is more common in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), nephrotic syndrome, or cirrhosis of the liver, who take an equivalent dose of a diuretic and consume approximately the same amount of potassium from food.1 View this table: [in this window] [in a new window] Table 2. Potential Causes of Hypokalemia View this table: [in this window] [in a new window] Table 3. Drugs That Induce Hypokalemia* Management of hypokalemia should begin with a thorough review of the patient's medical record. If potassium-wasting drugs are not implicated, hypokalemia is most commonly caused either by abnormal loss through the kidney induced by metabolic alkalosis or by loss in the stool secondary to diarrhea.2 Because potassium is a major intracellular cation, the tissues most severely affected by potassium imbalance are muscle and renal tubular cells. Manifestations of hypokalemia include generalized muscle weakness, paralytic ileus, and cardiac arrhythmias (atrial tachycardia with or without block, atrioventricular dissociation, ventricular tachycardia, and ventricular fibrillation). Typical electrocardiographic changes include flat or inverted T waves, ST-segment depression, and prominent U waves. In severe untreated hypokalemia, myopathy may progress to rhabdomyolysis, myoglobinuria, and acute renal failure. Such complications are most often seen in hypokalemia secondary to alcoholism. PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF POTASSIUM Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Data from animal experiments and epidemiologic studies suggest that high potassium may reduce the risk of stroke. Although part of the protective effect of potassium may be due to lowering of blood pressure, analysis of animal models suggests that potassium may have other protective mechanisms, including inhibitory effects on free radical formation, vascular smooth muscle proliferation, and arterial thrombosis.6-9 It has also been shown experimentally that potassium may reduce macrophage adherence to the vascular wall (an important factor in the development of arterial lesions, oxidative stress of the endothelium, or vascular eicosanoid production).10-12 In 1987, the results of a 12-year prospective population study (N = 859) showed that the relative risk of stroke-associated mortality was significantly lower with higher potassium intake.13 In fact, multivariate analysis demonstrated that a 10-mmol higher level of daily potassium intake was associated with a 40% reduction in the relative risk of stroke mortality. This apparent protective effect of potassium was independent of other nutritional variables, including energy (caloric) intake; dietary levels of fat, protein, and fiber; and intake of calcium, magnesium, and alcohol. The authors also noted that the effect of potassium was greater than that which would have been predicted from its ability to lower blood pressure.13 More recently, Ascherio et al6 reported the results of an 8-year investigation of the association between dietary potassium intake and subsequent risk of stroke in 43,738 US men, aged 40 to 75 years, without previously diagnosed cardiovascular disease or diabetes. During the study follow-up, 328 strokes were documented. The relative risk of stroke for men in the top fifth of the range of potassium intake (median intake, 4.3 g/d) vs those in the bottom fifth (median, 2.4 g/d) was 0.62 (P for trend = .007). The inverse association between potassium intake and subsequent stroke was more marked in hypertensive men and was not significantly altered by adjustment for baseline level of blood pressure.6 Ascherio et al6 also found that the use of potassium supplements was inversely related to the risk of stroke, particularly among hypertensive men. They speculated that this relationship might be due, at least in part, to a reduction in the risk for hypokalemia.6, 14-15 The authors recommended increasing the intake of potassium by substituting fruits, vegetables, and their natural juices for low-potassium processed foods and sodas and by considering potassium supplements for persons with hypertension.6 HYPOKALEMIA Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Clinical Implications in Hypertension Evidence from epidemiologic and clinical studies has implicated potassium depletion in the pathogenesis and maintenance of essential hypertension.16 Increasing the intake of potassium appears to have an antihypertensive effect that is mediated by such mechanisms as increased natriuresis, improved baroreflex sensitivity, direct vasodilation, and lower cardiovascular reactivity to norepinephrine or angiotensin II.17 Indirect support for this hypothesis comes from observations of the effects of primary aldosteronism (eg, aldosterone-producing hyperplasia or adenoma) or secondary aldosteronism (eg, excessive ingestion of licorice). These syndromes are characterized by abnormally low serum potassium levels and elevated blood pressure. Reversal of the underlying cause results in increased serum potassium levels and decreased blood pressure. Similarly, correction of diuretic or laxative abuse can also raise potassium level and lower blood pressure. The large-scale Nurses' Health Study (N = 41,541) found that dietary potassium intake was inversely associated with blood pressure. Specifically, intake of potassium-rich fruits and vegetables was inversely related to systolic and diastolic pressure.18 Similarly, 24-hour urinary potassium excretion, 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, and the ratio of urinary sodium to potassium were found to be independently related to blood pressure in the INTERSALT study,19 a 52-center international study of electrolytes and blood pressure. Additional information was provided by the Rotterdam Study,20 which evaluated the relationship between dietary electrolyte intake and blood pressure in 3239 older people (age, >=55 years). A 1 g/d higher level of dietary potassium intake was associated with a 0.9 mm Hg lower level of systolic blood pressure (P = .11) and a 0.8 mm Hg lower level of diastolic blood pressure (P = .01). Whelton et al21 recently conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluating the effects of oral potassium supplementation on blood pressure. This analysis included 33 clinical trials involving 2609 participants. In these trials, the use of potassium supplementation was the only difference between the intervention and control arms. Dosages of potassium (mostly in the form of potassium chloride) ranged from 60 mmol/d to greater than 100 mmol/d. The results demonstrated that potassium supplementation was associated with a significant reduction in mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure (–4.4 mm Hg and –2.4 mm Hg, respectively; P<.001). The greatest effects were observed in participants who had a high concurrent sodium intake. This analysis suggests that low potassium intake may play an important role in the genesis of high blood pressure. Thus, the authors recommended increased potassium intake for the prevention and treatment of hypertension.21 Based on the strength of the available data, the Joint National Committee for Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC VI) included increased potassium intake as a core recommendation for the prevention and treatment of hypertension.22 Among hypertensive patients, certain subgroups would derive special benefit from increased potassium intake. Best recognized are African Americans.23 In the meta-analysis by Whelton et al,21 the reduction of systolic blood pressure after potassium supplementation was approximately 3 times greater in blacks compared with whites. In addition, several studies have revealed lower urinary potassium excretion in blacks than in whites.23 Watson et al24 reported that 24-hour urinary excretion of potassium was 28 mmol in black females and 36 mmol in white females. The urinary sodium-to-potassium ratio was 4.1 in blacks and 2.9 in whites, a difference that was statistically significant.24 The Veterans Administration Cooperative Study Group on Antihypertensive Agents (N = 623) found potassium excretion to be 62% higher in whites than in blacks (73 ± 41 vs 45 ± 40 mmol); in addition, serum potassium levels were negatively associated with systolic blood pressure. The study concluded that the difference in urinary potassium excretion and in serum potassium levels between blacks and whites reflected a difference between the 2 groups in the intake of dietary potassium. Such a difference may be an important factor in the greater prevalence of hypertension in blacks.25 Clinical Implications in CHF Not surprisingly, potassium depletion is commonly seen in patients with CHF, a condition that is characterized by several physiologic abnormalities that predispose to the development of electrolyte disturbances. Among the pathogenetic factors associated with CHF are renal dysfunction and neurohormonal activation, which embrace stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis, enhanced sympathetic nervous tone, and hypersecretion of catecholamines.26 A common misperception regarding angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy is that these drugs enhance potassium retention, thereby eliminating the need to add potassium or potassium-sparing diuretics to ACE inhibitor therapy. In many cases, the prescribed dosages of ACE inhibitors in patients with CHF are insufficient to protect against potassium loss. Serum potassium levels, therefore, must be closely monitored in all patients with CHF—even those taking ACE inhibitors—to minimize the life-threatening risk of hypokalemia in these patients. The arrhythmogenic potential of digoxin is enhanced by hypokalemia in patients with heart failure. When using digoxin in combination with a loop diuretic and an ACE inhibitor, the decision of whether to administer potassium supplements can be complex. Leier et al26 recommend maintaining serum potassium levels in the range between 4.5 and 5.0 mmol/L. They suggest that "effective potassium management with properly targeted serum potassium concentrations . . . probably represents the most effective and safe antiarrhythmic intervention" in heart failure. Magnesium may also be administered to facilitate the reversal of refractory hypokalemia. The importance of preventing hypokalemia is underscored by the finding that the risks of dysrhythmias, syncope, cardiac arrest, or death are greater in patients with heart failure.26 This result may be due in part to the cells of hypertrophied and failing hearts often having prolonged action potential duration, which in most cases is due to a decrease in outward potassium currents. Nolan et al27 found that low serum potassium levels were related to sudden cardiac death in the United Kingdom Heart Failure Evaluation and Assessment of Risk Trial (N = 433). Grobbee and Hoes28 reported similar results in an examination of published randomized trials and recent case-control studies; patients with hypertension who were prescribed non–potassium-sparing diuretics had approximately twice the risk of sudden cardiac death compared with users of potassium-sparing therapy. The authors recommended using thiazide diuretics at a low dose only, and adding a potassium-sparing diuretic drug when higher diuretic doses are needed.28 They estimated that the protective effect of antihypertensive treatment on mortality might be halved by the induction of sudden death following potassium loss. Leier et al26 suggested that virtually all patients with CHF should receive potassium supplementation, a potassium-sparing diuretic, or an ACE inhibitor. This is a prudent management strategy in light of the potentially dire consequences of hypokalemia in these patients. Clinical Implications in Patients With Arrhythmias In the absence of underlying heart disease, major abnormalities in cardiac conduction secondary to hypokalemia are relatively unusual. However, mild-to-moderate hypokalemia can increase the likelihood of cardiac arrhythmias in patients who have cardiac ischemia, heart failure, or left ventricular hypertrophy.2, 29 As mentioned earlier, this occurrence is not surprising in light of the important role that potassium plays in the electrophysiologic properties of the heart. The relation between extra and intracellular potassium levels is the primary determinant of the resting membrane potential (RMP). Changes in potassium level modify the electrophysiologic properties of the membrane and can have profound effects on impulse generation and conduction throughout the heart.30 Potassium deficiency, as well as potassium channel blockade or down-regulation, can cause prolonged repolarization, the pathogenic factor in the genesis of torsades de pointes. The effects of hypokalemia on repolarization are magnified in many disease states, including left ventricular hypertrophy, CHF, myocardial ischemia, and myocardial infarction. Such effects, in turn, are compounded by agents with class III antiarrhythmic effects, such as sotalol.31 The Nernst equation describes how the ratio of intracellular to extracellular potassium affects the RMP of myocardial cells: RMP = –61.5 log [K+i/K+e]. Changes in this ratio, such as those induced by diuretic therapy, affect cardiac conduction and automaticity. As a result, low intracellular potassium levels can increase spontaneous depolarization, automaticity, and the emergence of ectopic foci.32 Despite this compelling basic information, the link between hypokalemia and clinical arrhythmogenesis is not a strong one. Caralis et al32 studied 17 hypertensive men to determine the relationship of diuretic-induced hypokalemia with ventricular ectopic activity. They found that the risk for ventricular ectopic activity was marked in a group of patients who were older and had clinical evidence of organic heart disease. Patients with these characteristics had increased frequency and complexity of ventricular ectopic activity during diuretic therapy. In these patients, normalization of serum potassium levels with oral potassium supplements or potassium-sparing agents reduced the complexity and frequency of arrhythmias by 85%, even after discontinuation of diuretic therapy. Therefore, the authors recommended that clinical and laboratory observation should be used to identify those patients susceptible to diuretic-induced ventricular ectopic activity (eg, older patients with organic heart disease) and that steps should be taken to normalize serum potassium levels. Caralis et al speculated that the finding of electrocardiographic abnormalities in a specific population suggested that modest disturbances of potassium metabolism alone may not induce arrhythmia; rather, abnormalities of heart rhythm are most likely when underlying heart disease and low potassium occur together.32-33 Although the relation between complex ventricular arrhythmia and hypokalemia remains uncertain, there is evidence that hypokalemia can trigger sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, particularly in the setting of acute myocardial infarction. However, the exact mechanism by which hypokalemia provokes ventricular fibrillation or sudden cardiac death in the absence of an acute myocardial infarction is unclear. In patients with a history of serious arrhythmias receiving antiarrhythmic drugs, hypokalemia may reverse the beneficial effects of these agents and render the patient vulnerable to a recurrence of arrhythmia.34-35 It is probably important, therefore, to impose a stricter standard for treatment (potassium <4.0 mmol/L) especially in patients with heart disease who are at risk for serious ventricular tachyarrhythmias. For example, the risk of early ventricular fibrillation in acute myocardial infarction is strikingly increased in patients with serum potassium levels less than 3.9 mmol/L.34-37 However, there are no data to prove that aggressive replenishment of potassium in patients with heart disease necessarily leads to a better clinical outcome. POTASSIUM SUPPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES: PREVENTION VS REPLETION Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Increasing potassium intake should be considered when serum potassium levels are between 3.5 and 4.0 mmol. Although treatment of asymptomatic patients with borderline or "low normal" concentrations is controversial, very low levels (<3.0 mmol) are universally regarded as undesirable. Efforts to increase potassium intake are appropriate in certain populations who are vulnerable to cardiac arrhythmias (such as patients with heart failure, those taking digoxin, and patients with a history of myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease). When the serum potassium level is below 3.5 mmol, potassium supplementation may be warranted even in asymptomatic patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension.32 Strategies to minimize the risk of potassium depletion include minimizing the dosage of non–potassium-sparing diuretics and restricting sodium intake. Increasing dietary potassium is the most straightforward means of enhancing potassium intake, but the high content of some potassium-rich foods is a potential drawback to dietary potassium supplementation (Table 1). Moreover, dietary potassium is almost entirely coupled with phosphate, rather than with chloride; therefore, it is not effective in correcting potassium loss that is associated with chloride depletion, such as in diuretic therapy, vomiting, and nasogastric drainage.2 For patients receiving diuretic therapy, an attempt should be made to reduce the dose or to discontinue therapy. If the potassium depletion is not due to diuretic therapy, the patient should be evaluated for other causes of potassium loss.1 When diuretic therapy is necessary, potassium balance should be protected by using low-dose diuretics and by using diuretics in combination with drugs that have the potential for sparing potassium (such as {beta}-blockers, potassium-sparing diuretics, ACE inhibitors, or angiotensin receptor blockers). Repletion strategies also should include eating foods high in potassium, using salt substitutes, or taking prescription potassium supplements (Table 4).2 View this table: [in this window] [in a new window] Table 4. Potassium Supplements Potassium salts include potassium chloride, potassium phosphate, and potassium bicarbonate. Potassium phosphate is found primarily in food, and potassium bicarbonate is typically recommended when potassium depletion occurs in the setting of metabolic acidosis (pH <7.4). In all other settings, potassium chloride should be used because of its unique effectiveness against the most common causes of potassium depletion. Moreover, hypochloremia may develop if citrate, bicarbonate, gluconate, or another alkalinizing salt is administered, particularly in patients adhering to diets that restrict the intake of chloride. Potassium chloride is available in either liquid or tablet formulations (Table 4),2 and all potassium formulations are readily absorbed. Although liquid forms may be less expensive, they have a strong, unpleasant taste and often are not well tolerated. COMPLIANCE ISSUES AND POTASSIUM REPLACEMENT THERAPY Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References As with many long-term therapies, compliance can be a challenge with potassium supplementation. Specific characteristics of a medication, such as appearance, color, taste, size, ease of swallowing, and cost can all influence patient compliance.45 Studies demonstrate that drug regimens should be simplified to the greatest extent possible to enhance compliance.46 For instance, compliance rates can be improved by requiring the fewest doses of medication per day. An examination of automated pharmacy records by Halpern et al45 documented this hypothesis. In their study of more than 2000 patients, the investigators determined the mean adherence ratios for 1 pill vs 2 or more pills daily with an equivalent dosage of potassium supplementation. At 1 year, the mean adherence ratio was significantly higher for patients taking 1 pill compared with those taking multiple pills per day. The worst ratios were observed in patients who were treated with liquid potassium supplements, which the authors speculated may have been due to increased side effects, poor taste, and the inconvenience of liquid supplements.45 In their conclusion, the authors emphasized that "patient adherence is vitally important in the successful treatment of disease, especially in asymptomatic long-term diseases. . . . Since potassium supplements are typically indicated for long-term use, it is important to optimize patient adherence."45 Reported adverse effects of potassium supplements affect primarily the gastrointestinal tract, and they include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, flatulence, and abdominal pain or discomfort. Ulcerations of the small bowel have been reported after the administration of enteric-coated potassium chloride tablets. A few cases of small bowel ulceration, stricture, and perforation have been associated with wax-matrix formulations.47 Although slow-release tablets have been associated with gastrointestinal tract ulcerations and bleeding, the risk of these complications is low and seems to be lowest with the use of microencapsulated preparations.2 POTASSIUM REPLETION AND THE ROLE OF MAGNESIUM Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Magnesium is an important cofactor for potassium uptake and for the maintenance of intracellular potassium levels. Recent studies using cellular models confirm the critical role of magnesium in maintaining intracellular potassium and indicate that the mechanisms are multifactorial.48 Whang and colleagues48 demonstrated that coexisting magnesium and potassium depletion could lead to refractory potassium repletion, which is the inability to replete potassium in the presence of unrecognized and continuing magnesium deficiency. Many patients with potassium depletion may also have magnesium deficiency. In particular, loop diuretics (eg, furosemide) produce substantial serum and intracellular potassium and magnesium loss. Digoxin accelerates the excretion of magnesium by reducing its reabsorption at the renal tubules. The role of magnesium in maintaining intracellular potassium is particularly important in cardiac myocytes because it desensitizes them to the calcium-induced arrhythmogenic actions of cardiac glycosides. Routine determination of serum magnesium levels should be considered whenever the measurements of serum electrolytes are necessary in a patient. Whang et al48 recommend considering the repletion of both magnesium and potassium for patients with hypokalemia. Dietary sources of magnesium include whole-grain cereals, peas, beans, nuts, cocoa, seafood, and dark green vegetables. CONSENSUS GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF POTASSIUM REPLACEMENT IN CLINICAL PRACTICE Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Low serum potassium concentration is perhaps the most common electrolyte abnormality encountered in clinical practice. Strategies aimed at achieving and maintaining normokalemia must take into account such factors as (1) baseline potassium values, (2) the presence of underlying medical conditions (eg, CHF), (3) the use of medications that alter potassium levels (eg, non–potassium-sparing diuretics) or that lead to arrhythmias in the presence of hypokalemia (eg, cardiac glycosides), (4) patient variables such as diet and salt intake, and (5) the ability to adhere to a therapeutic regimen. Because of the multiple factors involved, guidelines therefore should be directed toward patients with specific disease states, such as those with cardiovascular conditions, and toward the general patient population. The following list encompasses our general practices for the use of potassium. The guidelines were developed at a 1998 meeting of the National Council on Potassium in Clinical Practice. It is clear that controlled clinical studies are necessary to determine the specific recommendations. General Guidelines 1. Dietary consumption of potassium-rich foods should be supplemented with potassium replacement therapy. Often, increasing dietary potassium intake is not completely effective in replacing the potassium loss associated with chloride depletion (eg, that which occurs in diuretic therapy, vomiting, or nasogastric drainage) because dietary potassium is almost entirely coupled with phosphate, rather than with chloride. In addition, the consumption of potassium-rich foods in amounts that are sufficient to increase the level of serum potassium level to acceptable concentrations may be costly, and it may lead to weight gain. 2. Potassium replacement is recommended for individuals who are sensitive to sodium or who are unable or unwilling to reduce salt intake; it is especially effective in reducing blood pressure in such persons. A high-sodium diet often results in excessive urinary potassium loss. 3. Potassium replacement is recommended for individuals who are subject to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bulimia, or diuretic/laxative abuse. Potassium chloride has been shown to be the most effective means of replacing acute potassium loss. 4. Potassium supplements are best administered orally in a moderate dosage over a period of days to weeks to achieve the full repletion of potassium. 5. Although laboratory measurement of serum potassium is convenient, it is not always an accurate indicator of total body potassium. Measurement of 24-hour urinary potassium excretion is appropriate for patients who are at high risk (eg, those with CHF). 6. Patient adherence to potassium supplementation may be increased with compliance-enhancing regimens. Microencapsulated formulations have no unpleasant taste and are associated with a relatively low incidence of gastrointestinal side effects. 7. Potassium supplementation regimens should be as uncomplicated as possible to help optimize long-term compliance. 8. A dosage of 20 mmol/d of potassium in oral form is generally sufficient for the prevention of hypokalemia, and 40 to 100 mmol/d sufficient for its treatment. Patients With Hypertension 1. Patients with drug-related hypokalemia (ie, therapy with a non–potassium-sparing diuretic) should receive potassium supplementation. 2. In patients with asymptomatic hypertension, an effort should be made to achieve and maintain serum potassium levels of at least 4.0 mmol/L. Low serum potassium levels (eg, 3.4 mmol/L) in asymptomatic patients with uncomplicated hypertension should not be regarded as inconsequential. Dietary consumption of potassium-rich foods and potassium supplementation should be instituted as necessary. Patients With CHF Potassium replacement should be routinely considered in patients with CHF, even if the initial potassium determination appears to be normal (eg, 4.0 mmol/L). The majority of patients with CHF are at increased risk for hypokalemia. In patients with CHF or myocardial ischemia, mild-to-moderate hypokalemia can increase the risk of cardiac arrhythmia. In addition, diuretic-induced hypokalemia can increase the risk of digitalis intoxication and life-threatening arrhythmias. In light of the above information and the potential for hyperkalemia to occur secondary to drug therapy with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers, regular monitoring of the serum potassium level is essential in these patients. At any time, stress can trigger the secretion of aldosterone and the release of catecholamine in response to low cardiac output, thereby precipitating a fall in the serum potassium level. Patients With Cardiac Arrhythmias Maintenance of optimal potassium levels (at least 4.0 mmol/L) is critical in these patients and routine potassium monitoring is obligatory. Patients with heart disease are often susceptible to life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. In particular, such arrhythmias are associated with heart failure, left ventricular hypertrophy (characterized by an abnormal QRS complex), myocardial ischemia, and myocardial infarction (both in the acute phase and after remodeling). The coadministration of magnesium should be considered to facilitate the cellular uptake of potassium. Patients Prone to Stroke It is prudent to maintain optimal potassium levels in patients at high risk for stroke (including those with a history of atherosclerotic or hemorrhagic cerebral vascular accidents). Although the effectiveness of potassium supplementation in reducing the incidence of stroke in humans has not been demonstrated in randomized controlled trials, prospective studies suggest that the incidence of fatal and nonfatal stroke correlates inversely with dietary potassium intake. In addition, the association of stroke with hypertension is well known. Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Potassium levels should be closely monitored in patients with diabetes mellitus and potassium replacement therapy should be administered when appropriate. Data underscore the adverse effects of glucose and insulin on potassium levels and the high incidence of cardiovascular and renal complications in patients with diabetes mellitus. These factors are specific to patients with type 2 diabetes who have poorly controlled serum glucose levels. Patients With Renal Impairment Data suggest a link between potassium levels and lesions of the kidneys in patients with renal disease or diabetes. Animal studies have demonstrated that potassium may offer a protective effect on the renal arterioles. The clinical implications of these findings are not yet clear. AUTHOR INFORMATION Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References Accepted for publication February 28, 2000. This article is based on a symposium supported by a grant from Key Pharmaceuticals, Kenilworth, NJ. The National Council on Potassium in Clinical Practice participants include: Jay N. Cohn, MD,Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis; Peter R. Kowey, MD, Department of Cardiology, Lankenau Hospital and Medical Research Center, Wynnewood, Pa, Department of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa; Barry J. Materson, MD, Department of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Fla; L. Michael Prisant, MD, Department of Medicine, Director of Cardiology Fellowship Training, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta; Elijah Saunders, MD, Department of Medicine, Hypertension Division, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore; Dorothy L. Smith, PharmD, President, Consumer Health Information Corporation, McLean, Va, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC; Louis Tobian, MD, Department of Medicine, Division of Hypertension, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis; and Paul K. Whelton, MD, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, La. Reprints: Jay N. Cohn, MD, Cardiovascular Division, MMC 508, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. From the Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis (Dr Cohn); Department of Cardiology, Lankenau Hospital and Medical Research Center, Wynnewood, Pa, and Department of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa (Dr Kowey); Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, La (Dr Whelton); and Department of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta (Dr Prisant). REFERENCES Jump to Section • Top • Introduction • Clinical implications of... • Protective effect of potassium • Hypokalemia • Potassium supplementation... • Compliance issues and potassium... • Potassium repletion and the... • Consensus guidelines for the... • Author information • References 1. Mandal AK. Hypokalemia and hyperkalemia. Med Clin North Am. 1997;81:611-639. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 2. Gennari FJ. Hypokalemia. N Engl J Med. 1998;339:451-458. FREE FULL TEXT 3. Halperin ML, Kamel KS. Potassium. Lancet. 1998;352:135-140. ISI | PUBMED 4. Tannen RL. Potassium disorders. In: Kokko JP, Tannen RL, eds. Fluids and Electrolytes. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: WB Saunders; 1996:chap 3. 5. Hoes AW, Grobbee DE, Peet TM, Lubsen J. Do non–potassium-sparing diuretics increase the risk of sudden cardiac death in hypertensive patients? recent evidence. Drugs. 1994;47:711-733. ISI | PUBMED 6. Ascherio A, Rimm EB, Hernán MA, et al. Intake of potassium, magnesium, calcium, and fiber and risk of stroke among US men. Circulation. 1998;98:1198-1204. FREE FULL TEXT 7. McCabe RD, Backarich MA, Srivastava K, Young DB. Potassium inhibits free radical formation. Hypertension. 1994;24:77-82. ABSTRACT 8. McCabe RD, Young DB. Potassium inhibits cultured vascular smooth muscle proliferation. Am J Hypertens. 1994;7:346-350. ISI | PUBMED 9. Lin H, Young DB. Interaction between plasma potassium and epinephrine in coronary thrombosis in dogs. Circulation. 1994;89:331-338. FREE FULL TEXT 10. Ishimitsu T, Tobian L, Sugimoto K, Everson T. High potassium diets reduce vascular and plasma lipid peroxides in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. Clin Exp Hypertens. 1996;18:659-673. ISI | PUBMED 11. Ishimitsu T, Tobian L, Sugimoto K, Lange JM. High potassium diets reduce macrophage adherence to the vascular wall in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. J Vasc Res. 1995;32:406-412. ISI | PUBMED 12. Ishimitsu T, Tobian L, Uehara Y, Sugimoto K, Lange JM. Effect of high potassium diets on the vascular and renal prostaglandin system in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 1995;53:255-260. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 13. Khaw K-T, Barrett-Connor E. Dietary potassium and stroke-associated mortality: a 12-year prospective population study. N Engl J Med. 1987;316:235-240. ABSTRACT 14. Young DB, Lin H, McCabe RD. Potassium's cardiovascular protective mechanisms. Am J Physiol. 1995;268:R825-R837. 15. Cohen JD, Neaton JD, Prineas RJ, Daniels KA for the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial Research Group. Diuretics, serum potassium and ventricular arrhythmias in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. Am J Cardiol. 1987;60:548-554. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 16. Krishna GG, Kapoor SC. Potassium depletion exacerbates essential hypertension. Ann Intern Med. 1991;115:77-83. ISI | PUBMED 17. Barri YM, Wingo CS. The effects of potassium depletion and supplementation on blood pressure: a clinical review. Am J Med Sci. 1997;314:37-40. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 18. Ascherio A, Hennekens C, Willett WC, et al. Prospective study of nutritional factors, blood pressure, and hypertension among US women. Hypertension. 1996;27:1065-1072. FREE FULL TEXT 19. INTERSALT Cooperative Research Group. INTERSALT: an international study of eletrolyte excretion and blood pressure: results for 24-hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion. BMJ. 1988;297:319-328. ISI | PUBMED 20. Geleijnse JM, Witteman JCM, den Breeijen JH, et al. Dietary electrolyte intake and blood pressure in older subjects: The Rotterdam Study. J Hypertens. 1996;14:737-741. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 21. Whelton PK, He J, Cutler JA, et al. Effects of oral potassium on blood pressure: meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. JAMA. 1997;277:1624-1632. ABSTRACT 22. The Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Arch Intern Med. 1997;157:2413-2446. ABSTRACT 23. Langford HG. Dietary potassium and hypertension: epidemiologic data. Ann Intern Med. 1983;98:770-772. ISI | PUBMED 24. Watson RL, Langford HG, Abernethy J, Barnes TY, Watson MJ. Urinary electrolytes, body weight, and blood pressure: pooled cross-sectional results among four groups of adolescent females. Hypertension. 1980;2(4 Pt 2):93-98. 25. Veterans Administration Cooperative Study Group on Antihypertensive Agents. Urinary and serum electrolytes in untreated black and white hypertensives. J Chron Dis. 1987;40:839-847. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 26. Leier CV, Dei Cas L, Metra M. Clinical relevance and management of the major electrolyte abnormalities in congestive heart failure: hyponatremia, hypokalemia, and hypomagnesemia. Am Heart J. 1994;128:564-574. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 27. Nolan J, Batin PD, Andrews R, et al. Prospective study of heart rate variability and mortality in chronic heart failure: results of the United Kingdom Heart Failure Evaluation and Assessment of Risk Trial (UK-Heart). Circulation. 1998;98:1510-1516. FREE FULL TEXT 28. Grobbee DE, Hoes AW. Non–potassium-sparing diuretics and risk of sudden cardiac death. J Hypertens. 1995;13:1539-1545. ISI | PUBMED 29. Schulman M, Narins RG. Hypokalemia and cardiovascular disease. Am J Cardiol. 1990;65:4E-9E. FULL TEXT 30. Podrid PJ. Potassium and ventricular arrhythmias. Am J Cardiol. 1990;65:33E-44E. FULL TEXT 31. Näbauer M, Kääb S. Potassium channel down-regulation in heart failure [review]. Cardiovasc Res. 1998;37:324-334. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 32. Caralis PV, Materson BJ, Perez-Stable E. Potassium and diuretic-induced ventricular arrhythmias in ambulatory hypertensive patients. Miner Electrolyte Metab. 1984;10:148-154. ISI | PUBMED 33. Steiness E, Olesen KH. Cardiac arrhythmias induced by hypokalemia and potassium loss during maintenance digoxin therapy. Br Heart J. 1976;38:167-172. ABSTRACT 34. Duke M. Thiazide-induced hypokalemia: association with acute myocardial infarction and ventricular fibrillation. JAMA. 1978;239:43-45. ABSTRACT 35. Solomon RJ, Cole AG. Importance of potassium in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Acta Med Scand Suppl. 1981;647:87-93. PUBMED 36. Dyckner T, Helmers C, Lundman T, Wester PO. Initial serum potassium level in relation to early complications and prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Acta Med Scand. 1975;197:207-210. ISI | PUBMED 37. Hulting J. In-hospital ventricular fibrillation and its relation to serum potassium. Acta Med Scand Suppl. 1981;647(suppl):109-116. 38. Graham DY, Smith JL, Bouvet AA. What happens to tablets and capsules in the stomach? endoscopic comparison of disintegration and dispersion characteristics of two microencapsulated potassium formulations. J Pharm Sci. 1990;79:420-424. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 39. McMahon FG, Ryan JR, Akdamar K, Ertan A. Upper gastrointestinal lesions after potassium chloride supplements: a controlled clinical trial. Lancet. 1982;2:1059-1061. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 40. Pietro DA, Davidson L. Evaluation of patients' preference of two potassium chloride supplements: Slow-K and K-Dur. Clin Ther. 1990;12:431-435. ISI | PUBMED 41. Sinar DR, Boyzmski EM, Blackshear JL. Effects of oral potassium supplements on upper gastrointestinal mucosa: multicenter clinical comparison of three formulations and placebo. Clin Ther. 1986;8:157-163. ISI | PUBMED 42. Strom BL, Carson JL, Schinnar R, et al. Upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding from oral potassium chloride: comparative risk from microencapsulated vs wax-matrix formulations. Arch Intern Med. 1987;147:954-957. ABSTRACT 43. McMahon FG, Ryan JR, Akdamar K, Ertan A. Effect of potassium chloride supplements on upper gastrointestinal mucosa. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1984;35:852-855. ISI | PUBMED 44. Melikian AP, Cheng LK, Wright GJ, Cohen A, Bruce RE. Bioavailability of potassium from three dosage forms: suspension, capsule, and solution. J Clin Pharmacol. 1988;28:1046-1050. ABSTRACT 45. Halpern MT, Irwin DE, Brown RE, Clouse J, Hatziandreu EJ. Patient adherence to prescribed potassium supplement therapy. Clin Ther. 1993;15:1133-1145. ISI | PUBMED 46. Becker MH. Understanding patient compliance: the contributions of attitudes and other psychosocial factors. In: Cohen SJ, ed. New Directions in Patient Compliance. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books; 1979:16. 47. Graham DY. Effectiveness and tolerance of "solid" vs. "liquid" potassium replacement therapy. In: Cameron JS, Glussock RJ, Whelton A, eds. Kidney Disease. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker Inc; 1986;6:chap 36. 48. Whang R, Whang DD, Ryan MP. Refractory potassium repletion: a consequence of magnesium deficiency. Arch Intern Med. 1992;152:40-45. ABSTRACT RELATED LETTER Determining the Serum Concentration Alone Is Not Sufficient to Justify Potassium Administration Jacob Zatuchni and Jay N. Cohn Archives of Internal Medicine. 2001;161:1117. EXTRACT | FULL TEXT RELATED ARTICLE Archives of Internal Medicine Reader's Choice: Continuing Medical Education Archives of Internal Medicine. 2000;160:2551-2552. FULL TEXT THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES Intraoperative hypokalemia in pediatric liver transplantation: incidence and risk factors. Xia et al. Anesth. Analg. 2006;103:587-593. ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT Treatment of electrolyte disorders in adult patients in the intensive care unit Kraft et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm 2005;62:1663-1682. ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT Effect of Short-Term Supplementation of Potassium Chloride and Potassium Citrate on Blood Pressure in Hypertensives He et al. Hypertension 2005;45:571-574. ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT What is the optimal serum potassium level in cardiovascular patients? Macdonald and Struthers J Am Coll Cardiol 2004;43:155-161. ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT Effect of a Computerized Alert on the Management of Hypokalemia in Hospitalized Patients Paltiel et al. Arch Intern Med 2003;163:200-204. ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT Fortnightly review: Beneficial effects of potassium He and MacGregor BMJ 2001;323:497-501. FULL TEXT Determining the Serum Concentration Alone Is Not Sufficient to Justify Potassium Administration Zatuchni and Cohn Arch Intern Med 2001;161:1117-1117. FULL TEXT HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | COLLECTIONS | CME | CAREERNET | CONTACT US | HELP CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY © 2000 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Original URL http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic273.htm Hypokalemia Last Updated: September 20, 2005 Rate this Article Email to a Colleague Get CME/CE for article Synonyms and related keywords: potassium level less than 3.5 mEq/L, potassium homeostasis, palpitations, skeletal muscle weakness, cramping, paralysis, paresthesias, abdominal cramping, ventricular arrhythmias, premature atrial beats, premature ventricular beats, respiratory distress, hypoventilation, respiratory failure, lethargy, fasciculations, tetany, decreased tendon reflexes, cushingoid appearance, hyperaldosteronism, magnesium depletion, ileal loop, diuretics, alkalosis, low potassium AUTHOR INFORMATION Section 1 of 11 Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Author: David Garth, MD, Consulting Staff, Department of Emergency Medicine, Mary Washington Hospital David Garth, MD, is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Emergency Medicine Editor(s): Robin R Hemphill, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Director, Disaster Preparedness, Department of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD, Senior Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine; Howard A Bessen, MD, Professor of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine; Program Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; John Halamka, MD, Chief Information Officer, CareGroup Healthcare System, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; and Craig Feied, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, FACPh, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University, Director, National Institute for Medical Informatics, Director, Federal Project ER One, Director, National Center for Emergency Medicine Informatics Disclosure INTRODUCTION Section 2 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Background: Potassium is one of the body's major ions. Nearly 98% of the body's potassium is intracellular. The ratio of intracellular to extracellular potassium is important in determining the cellular membrane potential. Small changes in the extracellular potassium level can have profound effects on the function of the cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems. The kidney determines potassium homeostasis, and excess potassium is excreted in the urine. The reference range for serum potassium level is 3.5-5 mEq/L, with total body potassium stores of approximately 50 mEq/kg (ie, approximately 3500 mEq in a 70-kg person). Hypokalemia is defined as a potassium level less than 3.5 mEq/L. Moderate hypokalemia is a serum level of 2.5-3 mEq/L. Severe hypokalemia is defined as a level less than 2.5 mEq/L. Pathophysiology: Hypokalemia may result from conditions as varied as renal or GI losses, inadequate diet, transcellular shift (movement of potassium from serum into cells), and medications. Frequency: * In the US: As many as 20% of hospitalized patients are hypokalemic; however, hypokalemia is clinically significant in only about 4-5% of these patients. Severe hypokalemia is relatively uncommon. Up to 14% of outpatients are mildly hypokalemic, while approximately 80% of patients who are receiving diuretics become hypokalemic. Sex: Incidence is equal in males and females. CLINICAL Section 3 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography History: The history may be vague. Hypokalemia should be suggested by a constellation of symptoms that involve the GI, renal, musculoskeletal, cardiac, and nervous systems. The patient's medications should be reviewed to ascertain whether any of them could cause hypokalemia. Common symptoms include the following: * Palpitations * Skeletal muscle weakness or cramping * Paralysis, paresthesias * Constipation * Nausea or vomiting * Abdominal cramping * Polyuria, nocturia, or polydipsia * Psychosis, delirium, or hallucinations * Depression Physical: Findings may include the following: * Signs of ileus * Hypotension * Ventricular arrhythmias * Cardiac arrest * Bradycardia or tachycardia * Premature atrial or ventricular beats * Hypoventilation, respiratory distress * Respiratory failure * Lethargy or other mental status changes * Decreased muscle strength, fasciculations, or tetany * Decreased tendon reflexes * Cushingoid appearance (eg, edema) Causes: * Renal losses o Renal tubular acidosis o Hyperaldosteronism o Magnesium depletion o Leukemia (mechanism uncertain) * GI losses o Vomiting or nasogastric suctioning o Diarrhea o Enemas or laxative use o Ileal loop * Medication effects o Diuretics (most common cause) o Beta-adrenergic agonists o Steroids o Theophylline o Aminoglycosides * Transcellular shift o Insulin o Alkalosis * Malnutrition or decreased dietary intake, parenteral nutrition DIFFERENTIALS Section 4 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Cushing Syndrome Hypocalcemia Hypomagnesemia Other Problems to be Considered: Medication side effect Renal tubular acidosis Quick Find Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Click for related images. Related Articles Cushing Syndrome Hypocalcemia Hypomagnesemia Continuing Education CME available for this topic. Click here to take this CME. Patient Education Endocrine System Center Low Potassium Overview Low Potassium Causes Low Potassium Symptoms Low Potassium Treatment Important Safety Information Rozerem™ (ramelteon) is indicated for the treatment of insomnia characterized by difficulty with sleep onset. Rozerem can be prescribed for long-term use. Rozerem should not be used in patients with hypersensitivity to any components of the formulation, severe hepatic impairment, or in combination with fluvoxamine. Failure of insomnia to remit after a reasonable period of time should be medically evaluated, as this may be the result of an unrecognized underlying medical disorder. Hypnotics should be administered with caution to patients exhibiting signs and symptoms of depression. Rozerem has not been studied in patients with severe sleep apnea, severe COPD, or in children or adolescents. The effects in these populations are unknown. Avoid taking Rozere with alcohol. Rozerem has been associated with decreased testosterone levels and increased prolactin levels. Health professionals should be mindful of any unexplained symptoms possibly associated with such changes in these hormone levels. Rozerem should not be taken with or immediately after a high-fat meal. Rozerem should be taken within 30 minutes before going to bed and activities confined to preparing for bed. The most common adverse events seen with Rozerem that had at least a 2% incidence difference from placebo were somnolence, dizziness, and fatigue. (Advertisement) (Advertisement) WORKUP Section 5 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Lab Studies: * Serum potassium level <3.5 mEq/L (3.5 mmol/L) * BUN and creatinine * Glucose, magnesium, calcium, and/or phosphorous if coexistent electrolyte disturbances are suspected. * Consider digoxin level if the patient is on a digitalis preparation; hypokalemia can potentiate digitalis-induced arrhythmias. * Consider arterial blood gases (ABG): Alkalosis can cause potassium to shift from extracellular to intracellular. Imaging Studies: * CT scan of the adrenal glands is indicated if mineralocorticoid excess is evident (rarely needed emergently). Other Tests: * Electrocardiogram o T- wave flattening or inverted T waves o Prominent U wave that appears as QT prolongation (see Picture 1) o ST segment depression o Ventricular arrhythmias (eg, premature ventricular contractions [PVCs], torsade de pointes, ventricular fibrillation) o Atrial arrhythmias (eg, premature atrial contractions [PACs], atrial fibrillation) TREATMENT Section 6 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Prehospital Care: Be attentive to the ABCs. * If the patient is severely bradycardic or manifesting cardiac arrhythmias, appropriate pharmacologic therapy or cardiac pacing should be considered. Emergency Department Care: * Patients in whom severe hypokalemia is suspected should be placed on a cardiac monitor; establish intravenous (IV) access and assess respiratory status. * Direct potassium replacement therapy by the symptomatology and the potassium level. Begin therapy after laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis. * Usually, patients who have mild or moderate hypokalemia (potassium of 2.5-3.5 mEq/L), are asymptomatic, or have only minor symptoms need only oral potassium replacement therapy. If cardiac arrhythmias or significant symptoms are present, then more aggressive therapy is warranted. This treatment is similar to the treatment for severe hypokalemia. * If the potassium level is less than 2.5 mEq/L, IV potassium should be given. Admission or ED observation is indicated; replacement therapy takes more than a few hours. * Serum potassium is difficult to replenish if serum magnesium is also low. Look to replace both. Consultations: An internist or a nephrologist should be consulted for admission or follow-up care. MEDICATION Section 7 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Oral is the preferred route for potassium repletion because it is easy to administer, safe, inexpensive, and readily absorbed from the GI tract. For patients with mild hypokalemia and minimal symptoms, oral replacement is sufficient. For patients who have severe hypokalemia and are symptomatic, both IV and oral replacement are necessary. While IV potassium dosages of up to 40 mEq/h have been advocated, patients should receive no more than 20 mEq/h IV to avoid potential deleterious effects on the cardiac conduction system. Potassium solutions should never be given as an IV push and should be administered as a dilute solution. Higher concentrations of IV potassium are damaging to the smaller peripheral veins. Drug Category: Electrolyte supplements -- Potassium is essential for transmission of nerve impulses, contraction of cardiac muscle, maintenance of intracellular tonicity, skeletal and smooth muscles, and maintenance of normal renal function. These agents increase the body's potassium level. In general, 1 mEq/L drop in potassium correlates to a loss of 100-200 mEq of total body potassium. Hypokalemia may result from the movement of potassium into cells without loss of potassium from the body. Drug Name Potassium chloride, IV -- Potassium depletion sufficient to cause 1 mEq/L drop in serum potassium requires loss of about 100-200 mEq of potassium from total body store. In symptomatic patient with severe hypokalemia, administer up to 40 mEq/h of this IV preparation; maintain close follow-up care, provide continuous ECG monitoring, and check serial potassium levels. Higher dosages may increase risk of cardiac complications. Many institutions have policies that limit maximum amount of potassium that can be given per hour. Adult Dose 10-20 mEq/h IV via peripheral or central line Pediatric Dose 0.5-1 mEq/kg/dose over 1 h; not to exceed adult maximum dose Contraindications Hyperkalemia; renal failure; conditions in which potassium is retained; oliguria or azotemia; crush syndrome; severe hemolytic reactions; anuria; adrenocortical insufficiency Interactions Concurrent ACE inhibitors may result in elevated serum potassium concentrations; concurrent potassium-sparing diuretics or potassium-containing salt substitutes can produce severe hyperkalemia; in patients taking digoxin, hypokalemia may result in digoxin toxicity—caution if discontinuing potassium administration in patients maintained on digoxin Pregnancy A - Safe in pregnancy Precautions Do not infuse rapidly; high plasma concentrations of potassium may cause death due to cardiac depression, arrhythmias, or arrest; plasma levels do not necessarily reflect tissue levels; monitor potassium replacement therapy whenever possible by continuous or serial ECGs; when concentration >40 mEq/L infused, local pain and phlebitis may occur Drug Name Potassium chloride, oral (Klor-Con, K-Dur) -- Potassium depletion sufficient to cause 1 mEq/L drop in serum potassium requires a loss of about 100-200 mEq of potassium from total body store. Available in liquid, powder, or tablet form. Any form may irritate the stomach and cause vomiting. Should be taken with food or after meals to minimize GI discomfort. Oral potassium preparations include 8 mEq KCI slow release tablets, 20 mEq KCI elixir, 20 mEq KCI powder, 25 mEq KCI tablet. Adult Dose 20-40 mEq PO bid/qid; not to exceed 40 mEq PO/dose Pediatric Dose 1-4 mEq/kg/24 h PO divided bid/qid Contraindications Hyperkalemia; renal failure; conditions in which potassium is retained; oliguria or azotemia; crush syndrome; severe hemolytic reactions; anuria; adrenocortical insufficiency Interactions Concurrent ACE inhibitors may elevate serum potassium concentrations; concurrent potassium-sparing diuretics or potassium-containing salt substitutes can produce severe hyperkalemia; in patients taking digoxin, hypokalemia may result in digoxin toxicity—caution if discontinuing potassium administration in patients maintained on digoxin Pregnancy A - Safe in pregnancy Precautions Caution in cardiac disease and renal impairment; plasma levels do not necessarily reflect tissue levels FOLLOW-UP Section 8 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Further Inpatient Care: * Continue IV replacement of potassium as needed. * Continue cardiac monitoring in severe hypokalemia. * Repeat potassium level measurement every 1-3 hours. * Identify the etiology of the hypokalemia. Further Outpatient Care: * Repeat potassium level in 2-3 days. In/Out Patient Meds: * Consider switching to potassium-sparing diuretic if diuretic therapy is needed. * Take 40 mEq KCI daily for 2-3 days and repeat the potassium level. Transfer: * Patients should be transferred only after any cardiac arrhythmias have been treated and the condition has been stabilized. * Depending on the level of hypokalemia, an advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) ambulance should be used to allow continuous cardiac monitoring during transport. Complications: * Replacing potassium too quickly can cause a rapid rise in the blood potassium level, leading to a relative hyperkalemia with subsequent cardiac complications. * If hypokalemia is not corrected easily with replacement therapy, search for other coexistent metabolic abnormalities (eg, hypomagnesemia). Hypokalemia may be refractory to treatment until hypomagnesemia is corrected. * Hypokalemia can potentiate digitalis toxicity in patients who are taking digoxin. Prognosis: * Hypokalemia usually resolves with appropriate therapy. Patient Education: * Diet modification is recommended for those patients who are predisposed to hypokalemia. Increase intake of bananas, tomatoes, oranges, and peaches because they are high in potassium. * For excellent patient education resources, visit eMedicine's Endocrine System Center. Also, see eMedicine's patient education article Low Potassium. MISCELLANEOUS Section 9 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Medical/Legal Pitfalls: * If potassium is replaced too quickly, the rapid rise of the serum potassium level can induce symptomatic hyperkalemia; however, the total body reserves of potassium might still be less than normal. * Failure to monitor and repeat potassium levels during replacement therapy * Failure to recognize and correct other coexistent metabolic disorders (eg, hypomagnesemia) Special Concerns: * Do not overcorrect potassium in patients with periodic hypokalemic paralysis. This condition is a transcellular maldistribution, not a true deficit. * Diuretic therapy, diarrhea, and chronic laxative abuse are the most common causes of hypokalemia in elderly patients. * In patients with hypokalemia and diabetic ketoacidosis, part of the serum potassium should be administered as potassium phosphate. PICTURES Section 10 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Click here to go to the next section in this topic Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography Caption: Picture 1. Prominent U waves after the T waves in hypokalemia Click to see larger picture Click to see detailView Full Size Image Click to ZoomeMedicine Zoom View (Interactive!) Picture Type: ECG BIBLIOGRAPHY Section 11 of 11 Click here to go to the previous section in this topic Click here to go to the top of this page Author Information Introduction Clinical Differentials Workup Treatment Medication Follow-up Miscellaneous Pictures Bibliography * Cohn JN, Kowey PR, Whelton PK: New guidelines for potassium replacement in clinical practice: a contemporary review by the National Council on Potassium in Clinical Practice. Arch Intern Med 2000 Sep 11; 160(16): 2429-36[Medline]. * Dominiczak AF, Semple PF, Fraser R, et al: Hypokalaemia in alcoholics. Scott Med J 1989 Aug; 34(4): 489-94[Medline]. * Gennari FJ: Hypokalemia. N Engl J Med 1998 Aug 13; 339(7): 451-8[Medline]. * Halperin ML, Kamel KS: Potassium. Lancet 1998 Jul 11; 352(9122): 135-40[Medline]. * Howes LG: Which drugs affect potassium? Drug Saf 1995 Apr; 12(4): 240-4[Medline]. * Kleinfeld M, Borra S, Gavani S, et al: Hypokalemia: are elderly females more vulnerable?. J Natl Med Assoc 1993 Nov; 85(11): 861-4[Medline]. * Kung M: Parenteral adrenergic bronchodilators and potassium. Chest 1986 Mar; 89(3): 322-3[Medline]. * Latronico N, Shehu I, Seghelini E: Neuromuscular sequelae of critical illness. Curr Opin Crit Care 2005 Aug; 11(4): 381-90[Medline]. * Mandal AK: Hypokalemia and hyperkalemia. Med Clin North Am 1997 May; 81(3): 611-39[Medline]. * Paice BJ, Paterson KR, Onyanga-Omara F, et al: Record linkage study of hypokalaemia in hospitalized patients. Postgrad Med J 1986 Mar; 62(725): 187-91[Medline]. * Reactions Weekly: Dextrose: First report of ventricular arrhythmia: case report. Reactions Weekly 2005; 1046: 11. * Seigel JD, Di Palma JA: Medical treatment of constipation. Clinics in Colon & Rectal Surgery 2005; 18(2): 76-80. * Singhal PC, Venkatesan J, Gibbons N, et al: Prevalence and predictors of rhabdomyolysis in patients with hypokalemia. N Engl J Med 1990 Nov 22; 323(21): 1488[Medline]. * Walters EG, Barnes IC: A survey of hypokalaemia in patients of general practitioners. Br J Clin Pract 1988 May; 42(5): 192-5[Medline]. * Zafar H, Rehmani R, Chawla T, et al: Suicidal bus bombing of French Nationals in Pakistan: physical injuries and management of survivors. Eur J Emerg Med 2005 Aug; 12(4): 163-7[Medline]. * Zull DN: Disorders of potassium metabolism. Emerg Med Clin North Am 1989 Nov; 7(4): 771-94[Medline]. NOTE: Medicine is a constantly changing science and not all therapies are clearly established. New research changes drug and treatment therapies daily. The authors, editors, and publisher of this journal have used their best efforts to provide information that is up-to-date and accurate and is generally accepted within medical standards at the time of publication. However, as medical science is constantly changing and human error is always possible, the authors, editors, and publisher or any other party involved with the publication of this article do not warrant the information in this article is accurate or complete, nor are they responsible for omissions or errors in the article or for the results of using this information. The reader should confirm the information in this article from other sources prior to use. In particular, all drug doses, indications, and contraindications should be confirmed in the package insert. FULL DISCLAIMER Hypokalemia excerpt About Us | Privacy | Terms of Use | Contact Us | Advertising | Institutional Subscribers We subscribe to the HONcode principles of the Health On the Net Foundation © 1996-2006 by WebMD All Rights Reserved The Economists: Immigration and America’s high-tech industry The jobs machine Start-ups founded by immigrants are creating jobs all over America Apr 13th 2013 | SAN FRANCISCO |From the print edition ON APRIL 19th Jack Markell, the governor of Delaware, is due to visit a new factory being built in his state by Bloom Energy, a start-up based in Silicon Valley. Bloom makes clean power-generation systems using a novel fuel-cell technology. It is investing over $40m in its facility in Newark and plans to hire hundreds of people. Some will be carworkers who lost their jobs in 2008 when Chrysler shuttered a factory that once stood on the same site. Gary Convis, Bloom’s chief operations officer, says that the company has already hired over 100 former carworkers at its existing site in Silicon Valley. They used to work at a Toyota factory in the Bay Area, which closed in 2010. K.R. Sridhar, Bloom’s boss, says auto workers make good hires. His firm’s products have some systems in them similar to ones found in car engines. Bloom is also hiring military veterans used to tinkering with motors. “We are creating the next generation of jobs for middle-class Americans,” says Mr Sridhar, an immigrant from India who was an academic and an adviser to NASA before co-founding Bloom. Like many other entrepreneurs who have come to America and gone on to found businesses, Bloom’s boss is worried that the country’s immigration policies are hurting its prospects. Other tech moguls are also concerned. Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, and a bunch of other Silicon Valley types are planning to launch a well-funded political-advocacy group to lobby for more visas for skilled immigrants. Applications for this year’s quota of 65,000 “H-1B” visas for such workers began on April 1st. In less than a week they were oversubscribed. Congress is working to reform immigration laws. Tech folk hope it will open America’s doors to the legions of brainy foreigners clamouring to come in. But the final reform may be less bold. Many voters believe that newcomers steal jobs from natives. Companies are doing little to refute this myth, despite ample evidence. Some 40% of Fortune 500 firms were founded by immigrants or their children, according to the Partnership for a New American Economy, a pressure group. So were the firms behind seven of the ten most valuable brands in the world. Although the foreign-born are only an eighth of America’s population, a quarter of high-tech start-ups have an immigrant founder (see left-hand chart). New firms have an impact across America. “We haven’t told enough stories about high-tech job creation inspired by young firms,” says Michael McGeary of Engine, an advocacy group for start-ups. Last year Engine sponsored a study that showed high-tech employment growing fastest in places you might not associate with bits and bytes (see right-hand chart). Many start from a low base. But it is clear that high-tech jobs are spreading beyond Silicon Valley and New York. Some are being created by start-ups local to the area. Others are being offered by firms such as ZocDoc, a New York start-up that helps people find doctors and dentists, and lets them make appointments online. In March the company opened an office near Phoenix, where it plans to add 650 staff over the next three years. Oliver Kharraz, a German who is one of ZocDoc’s co-founders, says the firm, which employs some 400 people, needed a presence out west to help it serve customers there and drive new sales. It also wanted to ensure that business would keep ticking over even if New York were to be hit by a hurricane again. Other companies in tech hubs have opened faraway offices to tap new pools of skilled labour. Appirio, which advises companies on cloud-computing strategies, has opened an office in Indianapolis. “Lots of talented students are hungry for tech jobs, which are rare there,” says Narinder Singh, one of the company’s co-founders, whose parents came to America from India. RingCentral, a Silicon Valley firm that supplies cloud-based phone systems to businesses, has hired 74 staff in an office in Denver that opened in 2011. Vlad Shmunis, the firm’s Ukraine-born founder, says it wanted to be near another big university that could be a source of smart employees. Soaring salaries and extortionate rents in big tech centres encourage start-ups to hire elsewhere. Gild, a young San Francisco firm applying “big data” techniques to the recruitment of software engineers, is planning to open an office in Salt Lake City, where the tussle for talent is less ferocious. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the Salt Lake office becomes bigger than the San Francisco one in future,” says Sheeroy Desai, a co-founder of Gild who came to America from Pakistan in the 1980s to study. Logistics matter, too. Bloom Energy decided to open a factory in Delaware to make it easier to get its fuel cells, which are the size of a small car, to customers on the east coast. And View, another immigrant-founded Californian start-up, has opened its only factory in Mississippi, where it employs some 150 people to produce smart windows that change tint to alter the amount of heat and light entering a building without obscuring the view for those inside it. The firm chose a site near Memphis because it is a good place from which to ship stuff to the rest of America. High-tech jobs matter not just to software engineers, scientists and the folk working in factories such as Bloom’s and View’s. They also have a broader impact on employment. Engine’s report estimates that for every job created in the high-tech sector, another 4.3 jobs emerge over time in the local economy. That is more than three times the local “multiplier” for manufacturing jobs. Well-paid techies shop a lot and hire others to iron their shirts (if they wear shirts, that is). High-tech firms such as Google (whose co-founder Sergey Brin moved to America from Russia as a child) haven’t just created jobs for their own workers. They have also inspired the creation of entirely new categories of job. A few years ago no one earned a living as a mobile-app developer. Now they are everywhere. It is not just full-time workers who benefit: firms such as oDesk, a Silicon Valley outfit founded by two Greeks, are nurturing an online freelance economy that is in its infancy. Last year Americans using oDesk’s platform found over 2m hours of freelance work. Given all this, it is worrying that the proportion of start-ups in Silicon Valley founded by immigrants has fallen from 52% to 44% since 2005, according to the Kauffman Foundation, a think-tank. In America as a whole, the proportion has stopped climbing for the first time in decades. Vivek Wadhwa, the author of “The Immigrant Exodus”, suspects this is because the government has made it so much harder for immigrants to obtain permanent residency. Without a green card, brainy foreigners who quit their day jobs to start new companies risk deportation. Immigrant entrepreneurs seldom make their own case well in public. Having spent so long trying to fit in, they are often reluctant to draw attention to the fact that they were born elsewhere, observes Scott Sandell of NEA Associates, a venture-capital firm that has backed many of them. The stakes are high. America has benefited enormously from immigrants’ resourcefulness and penchant for risk-taking, says Mr Sridhar. But it lets in only 225,000 foreigners with special skills a year. This amounts to less than 0.1% of the total labour force. Proportionally, some of the country’s rivals let in more. America’s job-generating machine cannot run at full throttle for long if it is starved of fuel. UNHORSED JOCKEY Behind the Fall of Imus, A Digital Brush Fire In a Blur, Watchdogs, Blogs, Email, Spur Radio Host's Firing By BROOKS BARNES, EMILY STEEL and SARAH MCBRIDE April 13, 2007; Page A1 At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the "Imus in the Morning Show" when Don Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's." Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video, alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web site. PUBLIC PRESSURE [Don Imus] • NBC Takes Don Imus Show off TV 04/12/07 • P&G, Others Pull Imus Ads 04/11/07 • Imus Is Suspended Over Race Slurs 04/10/07 • Text of CBS statement • Video: NBC's Steve Capus on discontinuing "Imus" • Vote: Should Don Imus get a second chance in radio? Yesterday, after eight days of dizzying activity, CBS pulled the plug on Mr. Imus's hugely successful radio show. One day earlier, MSNBC had canceled its broadcast of the show on cable TV. CBS had originally suspended Mr. Imus for two weeks, but succumbed amid an escalating national outcry and an exodus of big advertisers. "All of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air," CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves said yesterday in a written statement. Mr. Imus, who didn't respond to repeated calls seeking comment, had for years been making outrageous and frequently crude remarks about risky subjects such as race, sex and gender, a style that millions of listeners had embraced. The media executives and advertisers profiting from Mr. Imus's popularity stood by him as protests occasionally surfaced. They usually subsided after a few days. This time it was different. The target was a sympathetic team of young athletes. In the ensuing furor, the lucrative and often vulgar business of talk radio found itself running into new limits, as the Internet sent Mr. Imus to millions of PC screens, driving executives, advertisers and employees to distance themselves from his racist words. On the morning of the original broadcast, there was little response to Mr. Imus's slur. Media Matters posted the video and transcript on its Web site and sent an email blast to several hundred reporters, as it does nearly every day. The post received dozens of comments, many heated, some more than 300 words long. The next day, top news outlets didn't mention the incident. On Thursday, at about 3 p.m., NBC News President Steve Capus was conducting a routine planning meeting in his third-floor offices at Rockefeller Center when an assistant interrupted him to take an urgent phone call, according to a person at the meeting. On the other line: MSNBC General Manager Dan Abrams. Mr. Abrams said MSNBC executives were fielding complaints from viewers and employees who had seen a video clip of Mr. Imus's remark on the Media Matters site, this person says. The group is a Web-based nonprofit organization devoted to monitoring "conservative misinformation" in print, broadcast, cable, radio and Internet media outlets. It frequently complains about Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. Although the Imus show isn't generally considered conservative, some of its guests are. Mr. Capus called an emergency meeting with MSNBC's management team, the producers for the TV version of "Imus in the Morning" and the head of public relations for NBC News. Among other decisions, Mr. Capus asked his PR team to draft a statement apologizing on behalf of MSNBC but clearly pointing out that "Imus in the Morning" was a CBS Radio production. MSNBC and NBC are owned by General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. [Imus] Darnell White of NAACP, during a protest of Don Imus outside NBC headquarters in New York. At CBS, CEO Leslie Moonves and incoming CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason spoke on the phone and started debating a course of action. About the same time, WFAN, the CBS-owned radio station that broadcast Mr. Imus's show, received a complaint from Rutgers University, according to Bo Dietl, an investigator and security consultant, and friend to Mr. Imus. In Chicago, Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, saw an email sent by one of his executive board members at 5:06 p.m. "FYI -- do we need to address" read the subject line. It was the Media Matters post. Mr. Monroe, editorial director of Johnson Publishing Co. in charge of Ebony and Jet magazines, wasn't a regular reader of Media Matters or an Imus listener. He looked at the email. "My first reaction was: 'Oh, no he didn't,'" he says. Then he watched the clip. "I heard the words come out of his mouth and thought, 'Has he lost his mind?'" Mr. Monroe picked up the phone and started calling other board members. He had guests over for dinner that night, who also were African-American. They talked about the controversy during dinner. Later that night, he was back on the phone with NABJ members and pulled an all-nighter to draft a statement. It said that the 3,200-member organization was "outraged and disgusted" by the comments, and called for "an immediate and sincere apology." Mr. Monroe posted the statement to the NABJ Web site at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, there was again scant mention of Mr. Imus's travails in the newspapers, although TV stations were beginning to pick up the story. Mr. Imus began his program, at 6:06 a.m., with an on-air apology. People close to Mr. Imus say he felt pressured to apologize by NBC and CBS executives. He also realized he needed to try to defuse the brewing storm. "Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark," he said. "Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we're sorry." It was Good Friday and many people already were off for the holiday weekend. News was supposed to slow to a crawl for several days. Instead, the apology made the story explode. It hit the wires that day, and reporters began to contact CBS and MSNBC. It quickly became clear an apology wasn't going to suffice, and that the weekend wouldn't douse the fire. David Carr, who writes a Monday media column for the New York Times business section, decided to scrap his planned subject and write about Mr. Imus instead. He called the remark "the kind of unalloyed racial insult that might not have passed muster on a low-watt AM station in the Jim Crow South." Mr. Imus's problems were compounded by a power vacuum at CBS Radio, which produced his show. Two weeks earlier, CEO Joel Hollander, a longtime supporter of Mr. Imus and his various charities, had resigned. The company had been underperforming lately and was still reeling from the loss of shock-jock Howard Stern to satellite radio. Mr. Hollander's successor, Mr. Mason, wasn't due to start until April 16. He consulted with CBS executives by phone and email from his home outside Washington, D.C. Mr. Imus's show is on just one CBS station -- WFAN -- but the media giant also earns revenue from syndicating the show to radio stations around the country. CBS owns 18% of the show's syndicator, Westwood One Inc. Local stations that carry Imus say they sensed the situation was drifting. "Nobody had a firm hand on it," says Gabe Hobbs, head of talk programming at Clear Channel Communications Inc., which airs the Imus show on a handful of stations, including in Washington, D.C., and Providence, R.I. Some station managers say Westwood's affiliate-relations staff stayed in touch with them throughout the week. Late Friday, WFAN issued a short statement. "We are disappointed by Imus's actions earlier this week, which we find completely inappropriate." The station said it would "monitor the program's content going forward." On Friday, advertisers including Procter & Gamble Co. started talking about pulling their advertising from MSNBC's daytime schedule, which included Imus. Civil-rights leaders such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson raised the volume of their protests over the weekend, holding rallies in New York and Chicago. At a Saturday rally at the Harlem headquarters of the National Action Network, Mr. Sharpton called for Mr. Imus to be fired. A Sharpton spokesman says more than 200 people attended. Mr. Imus began to grasp the full consequences of what he had done, says his friend Mr. Dietl. [Bo Dietl] "Everybody is coming after me," Mr. Dietl recalls Mr. Imus telling him in a phone call that day. Mr. Imus and Mr. Dietl discussed the possibility of Mr. Imus appearing on Mr. Sharpton's radio show on Monday. Mr. Dietl says he advised against it, saying Mr. Sharpton would use Mr. Imus only to advance his own agenda. But Mr. Imus told his friend he wanted to use the show to apologize again. CBS managers checked in with each other by phone, according to a spokesman, and NBC News executives gathered for a lengthy conference call on Sunday to map strategy, says Allison Gollust, head of communications for NBC News. Ms. Gollust hosted 15 people at her home for Easter dinner but never saw them. Both CBS and NBC realized on Monday that critics were focusing their energy on MSNBC. The channel, critics strategized, was more likely to pull the plug because it had less to lose. Mr. Imus generates about $25 million a year for CBS, but only about $8.3 million for MSNBC. And although Mr. Imus reached over two million radio listeners every morning and only about 350,000 television viewers, TV was a more visible platform to attack. Mr. Dietl offered to appear on Mr. Sharpton's show with Mr. Imus. "He said, 'No, Bo, I want to go on myself. I want to show I'm not afraid to face the music,'" Mr. Dietl recalls, saying Mr. Imus was convinced the controversy would die down after an apology. But the appearance seemed to make matters worse, with critics latching on to Mr. Imus's use of the phrase "you people," in what they said was a bungled apology. CBS and NBC faced new problems: The Rutgers basketball team called a news conference for Tuesday morning. Another issue: a two-day charity "radio-athon" scheduled for Mr. Imus's show on Thursday and Friday. At 6:30 p.m., MSNBC issued a harsh statement announcing it was suspending the show for two weeks, calling Mr. Imus's comments "racist" and "abhorrent." CBS 15 minutes later released its own statement saying it also would suspend the show. The Rutgers news conference the next day was devastating. Carried live on cable TV, it went on for more than an hour. The coach gave a lengthy speech, before the 10 young women on the team, eight of whom are black, were introduced. They looked uncomfortable in the media glare. Without a hint of professional polish, their remarks came across as heartfelt. For years, Mr. Imus had been somewhat inoculated from criticism because along with the edgy shtick, he addressed serious issues with guests from the political and media establishment. Presidential candidates (John Kerry, John McCain, Joseph Biden) top journalists (NBC's Tim Russert, David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell) and writers with a book to sell made stops on the show. Mr. Imus also pushed worthy charities, including his New Mexico ranch which hosted children with cancer. But it soon became clear that events were moving at a speed he couldn't control. P&G, the nation's largest advertiser, and one of its most conservative, says it quietly pulled ads from the TV broadcast on Friday but it didn't announce it until Tuesday when reporters started calling. P&G pulled ads from MSNBC's daytime schedule. Mr. Capus called a meeting for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday with African-American employees in the news division, many of whom had complained to managers that MSNBC was sticking with Mr. Imus. The meeting, slated for 45 minutes, stretched for nearly two hours as employees -- some emotional and frank -- argued for axing the broadcast, according to two people who attended. Jarred by the confrontation, Mr. Capus left the meeting and started lobbying CEO Jeff Zucker to pull the plug, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senior NBC executives arrived at work on Wednesday to a flood of advertisers clamoring to pull their money from "Imus in the Morning." General Motors Corp., American Express Co., and GlaxoSmithKline PLC all followed P&G's lead. American Express's CEO Kenneth Chenault, an African-American, made the decision personally on Tuesday morning, says a spokeswoman for the financial giant. At Sprint Nextel Corp., CEO Gary D. Forsee heard about the incident and agreed the spots should be pulled. Sprint employees had lobbied for the move, including members of an African-American Sprint employee group called the Diamond Network, says spokesman Chris Doherty. Sprint publicly confirmed its decision Wednesday. Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of North American vehicle sales, service and marketing, had been an occasional guest on Mr. Imus's program, appearing as recently as last Thursday. Over the years Mr. LaNeve had arranged for GM to donate vehicles to Mr. Imus's ranch for sick children. On Tuesday, as advertisers were beginning to pull out, GM said it had "no plans to make any changes at this point." A day later GM changed its mind. Yesterday, Mr. LaNeve and another top marketing executive decided to drop the ads altogether. At NBC Universal, the only debate left was whether to announce the cancellation of the simulcast that day or wait until the charity telethon was concluded. In the early afternoon, Mr. Zucker checked in with GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who had in turn been taking the pulse of GE board members, according to a person close to Mr. Immelt. At a 5 p.m. meeting, Mr. Zucker made the call to pull the plug immediately. "This is the right thing to do," Mr. Zucker said, according to a person in the room. Communications executives drafted statements to release to employees and the media. NBC News executives called Mr. Imus, and Mr. Zucker placed a tense phone call to CBS's Mr. Moonves around 6 p.m. letting him know the decision. Mr. Dietl had been reaching out to Mr. Moonves's boss, CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone, on Mr. Imus's behalf. "Two words should not ruin a person's career," he recalls telling Mr. Redstone. A spokesman for Mr. Redstone confirms the media mogul spoke with Mr. Dietl but otherwise declines to comment. On Wednesday, CBS board member Bruce Gordon, a former head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, dropped a bomb by telling the Associated Press he had called on Mr. Moonves to fire Mr. Imus. Mr. Redstone left the decision to pull the show largely to Mr. Moonves, says a person familiar with the matter. On Thursday morning, Mr. Moonves spent an hour and a half meeting with about 10 African-American leaders and women's rights advocates. Mr. Moonves called Mr. Imus late yesterday afternoon at home and told him that his show was canceled, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Imus was awoken from a nap to take the call, Mr. Dietl says. Other controversial radio hosts have gravitated to satellite, where there are fewer rules governing on-air standards. That happened with Mr. Stern, and with Opie & Anthony, a duo fired from CBS in August 2002 for encouraging a couple to have sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. But right now, the two satellite companies, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., are trying to merge, and need approval from the Federal Communications Commissions. FCC chief Kevin Martin is sensitive to complaints about indecency, and the companies wouldn't want to do anything that would jeopardize their merger prospects, says one satellite radio executive. Mr. Imus's friend Mr. Dietl, a former New York City Police Department detective, blames the brouhaha on a fundamental mistake made by the radio host. While many others can get away with using offensive language, Mr. Dietl says, "the problem here was the people he talked about were innocent, lovely young ladies who strived and did something great." --Neal Boudette, Ellen Byron, Brian Steinberg and Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article. Write to Brooks Barnes at brooks.barnes@wsj.com, Emily Steel at emily.steel@wsj.com and Sarah McBride at sarah.mcbride@wsj.com Click to format this article for printing Click to format this article for printing Find out about distributing multiple copies of this article Find out about distributing multiple copies of this article Free Ride by Robert Levine – review Is online piracy and ubiquitous free content killing our culture? Robert Levine's polemic is entertaining but doesn't quite convince Evgeny Morozov Evgeny Evgeny Morozov guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 August 2011 11.12 EDT larger | smaller Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston in an episode of cable channel AMC's Breaking Bad Levine fears for the future of cable TV, and programmes such as AMC’s Breaking Bad. When Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting our Economy appeared in 2007, its subtitle was music to many ears. Short on facts and long on hyperbole, it wasn't very persuasive, but by then the growing fear that elite culture was capitulating to the vulgar ephemera of pokes and tweets had turned internet-bashing into something of a cult itself. Free Ride: How the Internet Is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back by Robert Levine Buy it from the Guardian bookshop Search the Guardian bookshop Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book In Free Ride, Robert Levine, a one-time executive editor of Billboard magazine, makes a much stronger case for an impending cultural apocalypse. And while he occasionally ventures into the Andrew Keen territory – "this isn't creative destruction; it's the destruction of creativity"– he also knows his statistics. According to Levine, the web took the culture industry by surprise. Technology companies, on the other hand, were better prepared, exploiting the ensuing confusion to lobby for favourable laws. Levine singles out America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which ensures that sites such as YouTube don't have to pre-screen every uploaded video for possible copyright violations. Real trouble began when services such as Napster threatened too many business models by allowing users to swap files. Worse, a formidable intellectual lobby – spearheaded by law professors such as Larry Lessig and funded by Silicon Valley – tried to rationalise such activities under the "free culture" banner. Levine is not exactly a "free culture" man. He argues that faddish ideas celebrated by internet gurus – for instance, that newspapers should give away their online content – are based on sloppy economics. "For media companies, getting advice from technology pundits was like letting the fox lead a strategic management retreat in the henhouse," he writes. Levine is an engaging, provocative writer, and there is much to like about Free Ride. His basic insight, that Silicon Valley's penchant for experimentation may inadvertently hurt the culture industry, is correct. His materialistic – almost Marxist – explanation of the "free culture" ideology as the product of Silicon Valley's covert agenda is also quite refreshing. However, Levine's penchant for the conspiratorial – everything eventually leads to Google! – is a distraction that occasionally makes him sound like rightwing broadcaster Glenn Beck. Most likely, he would dismiss the present reviewer – a fellow at the New America Foundation and Stanford University, both of which take quite a drubbing in Free Ride – as shilling for Google. (Regrettably, I am yet to receive a Christmas card from Eric Schmidt.) While it's true that Google has been aggressively shaping internet policy, this doesn't mean that its interests always diverge from those of the public. To take an obvious example: Google is funding work on circumventing internet censorship – the more people browse the web, the better it is for Google. Is it reasonable to attack such efforts on the grounds that Google has a commercial agenda? In mounting his passionate attack on Silicon Valley, Levine often distorts the arguments of his opponents. I have yet to meet anyone who subscribes to the theory that "the price of any good should fall to its marginal cost". Levine believes that Wired's Chris Anderson wrote just that in his 2009 book Free. But he didn't: Anderson was writing about firms selling homogeneous and undifferentiated products, not songs or movies. (Anderson: "If one product is vastly superior to another… the primary determinant of price is not marginal cost but 'marginal utility' – what it's worth to you.") Or take a recent study funded by the Knight Foundation, which is blasted by Levine for taking the simplistic view that universal broadband is the way to solve many of journalism's ills. Those ills, according to Levine, should be addressed by generating more high-quality content – precisely what the Knight study said in five of its 10 recommendations. While Levine acknowledges the murky nature of most studies about piracy, the studies he does cite paint a more ambiguous picture than he lets on. He touts a 2010 report showing that a quarter of all web traffic is piracy-related, but he neglects to mention that the report also found that films that could be purchased and legally viewed online are pirated far less often. Hence his assertion that "traditional media companies aren't in trouble because they're not giving consumers what they want" does not ring true. Levine's call to arms – "it's time to ask, seriously, whether the culture business as we know it can survive the digital age" – betrays a poor grasp of media history. Had our laws been crafted to preserve the "culture business as we know it", the photograph, the gramophone, the photocopier, the tape recorder and, yes, the internet may have never arrived. In a chapter subtitled "How the internet could kill Mad Men", Levine frets about the future of cable television, seemingly unaware of the fact that, back in the 1960s, American broadcast networks did their best to wipe out the nascent cable industry, which survived only thanks to a ruling by the US supreme court. Had the judges followed Levine's conservative logic, a more fitting subtitle would be "How the networks aborted the parents of Mad Men". Are new technologies really that much of a threat to the culture industry? Google TV – one of the projects Levine lists among the greatest threats to cable television – seems dead on arrival; at the moment, product returns outnumber sales. According to a recent survey by BookStats, in 2011 the publishing industry earned nearly 6% more revenue than in 2008, while selling 4% more books – in part, thanks to ebooks. The global march of streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify has made piracy less appealing. None of this excites Levine, who complains that the internet has not encouraged innovation. "Like TV, the internet is only as good as what's on," he writes. Statements like this underscore the danger of setting internet policy based on the interests of the content industry alone. For those in this group, the internet is merely TV on steroids – its impact on the Arab spring, economic and human development and the future of learning be damned. However, it is irresponsible to craft effective internet policy without examining how it will affect areas that have nothing to do with culture. Do we really want to build tools to screen online content for copyright violations, only to discover that dictators use those very tools for spying on dissidents? Levine's proposed solutions are not new. He wants to rewrite or reinterpret laws that shield internet companies from responsibility for the acts of their users, and enact new laws to punish both publishers and consumers of pirated materials. All of these proposals are likely to trigger unintended consequences – increased surveillance, stalled innovation and disruption of internet architecture – that Levine prefers not to dwell on. Despite these shortcomings, Free Ride is still an entertaining read, with an entertaining cast. After all, how often does one get to hear James Murdoch – whom Levine places among the "saviours of journalism" – demanding "an enforcement agenda that works and doesn't turn a blind eye to theft"? Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion (Allen Lane) Losing Iowa 7 Share Tuesday, September 21, 2010 James Edward Johnson Special to the Jewish Week Iowa may be the Achilles' heel in the fabled power of the Israel lobby. Unfortunately, Jews are losing the state. There are about 6,000 Jews in Iowa according to the latest Statistical Abstract of the United States. That means only one in 500 Iowans is Jewish. By comparison, New York, California, and Illinois have 1.6 million, 1.2 million, and 278 thousand Jews, representing 8.3 percent, 3.3 percent, and 2.2 percent of their respective state populations. The challenge to maintain basic religious services in Iowa leaves little leadership to defend Israel and the Jewish people. And yet, contrary to the coastal view of America, Iowa has a disproportionate impact on national politics. Iowa has led most of the nation in allowing interracial marriage, ending segregation, opening public universities to women, striking down anti-sodomy laws and allowing same-sex marriage. Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses give it disproportionate political attention. Any serious presidential candidate must make multiple visits to the state to be viable. The lack of a significant Jewish presence in Iowa presents a problem for Jews in this country. Pro-Jewish and pro-Israel forces rely heavily on support originating with local Jewish community organizations. The only Jewish Community Relations Council in Iowa is part of the Des Moines Jewish Federation and it is the smallest JCRC in the country. AIPAC, the ADL, and other pro-Israel groups rely entirely on Iowa’s Jewish base for their continued activity in Iowa. Christians United for Israel does put on a significant event to raise money for Israel each year, but that support has yet to translate into significant new political support for Jewish interests - particularly in areas where such interests are being brushed aside. Anti-Israel forces in the state, however, are very active. Mainline church activist groups, anti-war groups, and pro-Palestine groups focus heavily on their anti-Israel efforts. Several members of Rachel Corrie's family live in Iowa and are activists against Israel. Furthermore, they create a culture of Jew-hatred in their wake. For several years, a regular protester on Shabbat plagued the Iowa City synagogue. Antiwar rallies frequently attract antisemitic slogans. Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a Palestinian Christian organization that employs anti-Jewish rhetoric, has twice held major conferences in the state. Most importantly, anti-Israel activists seek legitimacy for their efforts to delegitimize Israel. This legitimacy-seeking activity provoked candidate Barack Obama to say during the 2008 presidential campaign, "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people." One of the leading anti-Israel activists in Iowa set the trap with a question and Obama stepped into it. The Des Moines Register dutifully reported the story without important context that would have undermined the anti-Israel framing. In his nuanced style, Obama blamed the Palestinian Arab leadership, particularly Hamas, for such suffering. He defended the "special relationship" with Israel. However, anti-Israel activists quickly raised up their trophy and this context was not reported. Although the Obama campaign quickly provided the fuller context, The Des Moines Register did not report these details until weeks later. Most of the Iowa Jewish leadership knew the context and refused to deal with the story as framed. However, when the Des Moines Register published a single Jewish letter writer who asked for clarification, many claimed that Jews were trying to squelch criticism of Israel. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, pushed this view aggressively in print and public appearances throughout Iowa less than one month later. When everything settled, the anti-Israel narrative won the day and Jews were cast as censors. In the interceding two years, nothing has improved. Caucuses require in-person attendance. In 2010, Iowa's caucuses were moved to Saturday, thereby excluding Shabbat-observant Jews. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs organized a letter that condemned the decision because it "disenfranchises members of the Jewish community" and "is utterly inconsistent with the values of our pluralistic democracy." Among the 18 signatories were the National Jewish Democratic Council, Republican Jewish Coalition, Anti-Defamation League, Orthodox Union, Union for Reform Judaism, and United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism. When the Iowa Democratic Party considered an amendment to its constitution this year at its state convention to prohibit holding caucuses on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, the amendment was easily defeated. As a practical matter its failure harmed only Jewish interests. There has never been discussion to hold the caucuses on Friday or Sunday. The Republican Party in Iowa remains solidly pro-Israel and receives the benefit of a growing CUFI presence in the state. But anti-Israel activists are pushing hard for the Democratic Party to abandon its support. Iowa leans blue and Democratic Party politics are the critical battleground. In both 2008 and 2010, efforts by anti-Israel activists placed one-sided criticism of Israel in the draft state Democratic Party platforms - platforms that never criticized any other state in the world. Fortunately, pro-Israel activists removed the language at the state conventions. In 2008, coordinated opposition to the language fairly readily defeated it. In 2010, however, the language was only very narrowly defeated. The immediate threat from this trend is that delegitimizing rhetoric aimed at Israel will become normal and politicians will inadvertently support it. In fact, two of the three Democratic US Senate primary candidates this year attended anti-Israel events during their primary campaigns. In 2012, the caucuses will focus heavily on the Republicans. In the absence of a strong run by someone like Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan, there will be few opportunities for the enemies of Israel. Republicans are not likely to turn against Israel in the short term. However, on Jewish issues like Shabbat caucuses, Republicans may do no better. That changes in 2016, when Democrats have a contested presidential election. Democratic candidates will be pushed harder to take anti-Israel positions. While top candidates might have a national strategy that more heavily considers later votes from more Jewish places, it will not change the fact that candidates are made or broken in Iowa. Jews throughout America should be concerned about this fact. James Edward Johnson is an active member of Iowa's Jewish community and Democratic Party. May 27, 2008 Nuclear Agency Accuses Iran of Willful Lack of Cooperation By ELAINE SCIOLINO PARIS — The International Atomic Energy Agency, in an unusually blunt and detailed report, said Monday that Iran’s suspected research into the development of nuclear weapons remains “a matter of serious concern” and continues to need “substantial explanations.” The nine-page report accused the Iranians of a willful lack of cooperation, particularly in answering allegations that its nuclear program may be pointed less at energy generation than at military use. Part of the agency’s case hinges on 18 documents listed in the report and presented to Iran that, according to Western intelligence agencies, indicate the Iranians have ventured into explosives, uranium processing and a missile warhead design — activities that ordinarily would be associated with constructing nuclear weapons. “There are certain parts of their nuclear program where the military seems to have played a role,” said one senior official close to the agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic constraints. He added, “We want to understand why.” Iran has dismissed the documents as “forged” or “fabricated,” claimed that its experiments and projects had nothing to do with a nuclear weapons program and refused to provide documentation and access to its scientists to support its claims. The report also makes the serious allegation that Iran is learning to make more powerful centrifuges that are operating faster and more efficiently, the product of robust research and development that has not been fully disclosed to the agency. That means the country may be producing enriched uranium — which can be used to make electricity or fuel bombs — faster than expected with a parallel program that could replace its older generation of less reliable centrifuges. Some of the centrifuge components have been produced by Iran’s military, said the report, prepared by Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the agency. The report makes no effort to disguise the agency’s frustration with Iran’s lack of transparency. It describes, for example, Iran’s installation of new centrifuges, known as the IR-2 and IR-3 (for Iranian second and third generations) and other modifications at its sprawling site at Natanz, as “significant, and as such should have been communicated to the agency.” The agency also said that during a visit in April, it was denied access to sites where centrifuge components are being manufactured and where research of uranium enrichment is being conducted. The report does not say how much enriched uranium the Iranians are now producing, but the official connected to the agency said that since last December, it was slightly less than 150 kilograms, about double the amount they were producing during the same period about 18 months ago. “The Iranians are certainly being confronted with some pretty strong evidence of a nuclear weapons program and they are being petulant and defensive,” said David Albright, a former weapons inspector who now runs the Institute for Science and International Security. “The report lays out what the agency knows and it is very damning. I’ve never seen it laid out quite like this.” Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the Vienna-based agency, however, said that the report vindicated Iran’s nuclear activities. It “is another document that shows Iran’s entire nuclear activities are peaceful,” the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him as saying. The report is likely to reinforce the view both in Washington and European capitals that Iran is not serious — either in dealing with evidence that the United States has used in charging that Iran had tried to design a weapon or in complying with demands by the United Nations Security Council that it stop enriching uranium. A National Intelligence estimate published last December by American intelligence agencies concluded that Iran suspended its work on a weapons design in late 2003, in response apparently to mounting international pressure, adding that it wasn’t certain whether the weapons work had resumed. The agency’s report highlights the amount of work still to be done before definitive conclusions about the nature of the program can be made, a task that the agency-associated official said would require months. The absence of Iranian cooperation on nuclear issues comes as the Bush administration, in its waning days, seems powerless to modify Iran’s behavior. And in fact, the delicate question seems already pushed to the future with the forceful disagreements in recent days between the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, and Barack Obama, contending for the Democratic nomination, over whether an American president should negotiate with Iran’s leadership. Still, Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, announced in Brussels on Monday that he would go to Iran soon — hopefully “within the month” — to present a new offer of political, technological, security and trade rewards for Iran if the country halts its uranium enrichment program. Mr. Solana will travel with senior foreign ministry officials of five of the six countries involved in the initiative — Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — but not the United States, which has refused to hold talks with Iran. The incentives, agreed on by the six countries in London early this month but still not made public, repackaged and clarified an incentives package presented to Iran in 2006. Iran rejected it at the time, saying that relinquishing its uranium enrichment program is non-negotiable. Indeed, following the London meeting this month, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said that the new package should not cross Iran’s “red line” — shorthand for Iran’s uranium-enrichment program. On May 13, Iran responded with its own package of proposals, calling for new international talks on political, economic and security issues, including its nuclear program and the Arab-Israeli peace process. The proposal, made in a letter from Mr. Mottaki to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, includes the creation of international fuel production facilities in Iran and other countries — a long-standing goal of Iran — as well as improved supervision of Iran’s nuclear program by the Vienna-based atomic energy agency. Over the years, the United States and France have led the way in opposing the idea of a fuel-production facility in Iran, arguing that it would allow Iranian experts to both master the complex process of enriching uranium and use that knowledge in a secret bomb-making project. Iran insists that its uranium enrichment program is devoted solely to producing fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity. The report, which was released on Monday to the agency’s 35-country board of directors and the United Nations Security Council, will be formally discussed by the board at it headquarters in Vienna next week. Iranian Bombardment DIsplaces Hundreds at Northern Iraq BY YAHYA BARZANJI - Associated Press September 1, 2007 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/61763 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT MARDOW, Iraq - As explosions boomed in the distance, a Kurdish woman stood outside her house and pointed to where shells scorched parts of her father's grapes and plum orchards. "It was a bad day when some 20 shells hit our village in a single day last week. We were crying as we prayed to God to protect us from the bombs of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Serwa Ibrahim, one of the few remaining villagers in Mardow, about 25 miles from the Iranian border. "Despite the shelling, I will stay in my village until the end," Ms. Ibrahim, 33, said Thursday. Iranian troops have been accused of bombing border areas for weeks against suspected positions of the Free Life Party, or PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party. Iran says PEJAK - which seeks autonomy for Kurds in Iran - launches attacks inside Iran from bases in Iraq. The Iranian shelling has been criticized by Iraqi officials and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned it could have negative effects on the crucial relations between Iran and Iraq's Shiite-led government. Ari Yashir, a PEJAK member, took a reporter in a tour around several deserted villages and claimed the Iranian attacks only serve to harm civilians. "The bombing is only targeting villages where we have no bases," he said. "After three weeks of Iranian shelling none of our positions was hit and not a single member of our party was wounded." Most of the people who fled their homes have gathered in an area known as Shewe Hasow, a valley with water springs in the Qandil Mountain area that borders Iran and Turkey. Many of them stay in tents or under covers mostly supplied by the International Committee of the Red Cross. "We are here because the refugees are in need," said ICRC member Patrick Youssef, standing by a truck with canned food and bottled water. "We are helping them with needed stuff because most of them left their homes leaving their things behind." The Kurdish region's interior minister, Othman Haji Mahmoud, told the Kurdish regional parliament Tuesday that the Iranian shelling led to the displacement of some 450 families in 20 villages, adding that several people were wounded in addition to material damages. He said the latest wave of shelling began Aug. 14. In Baghdad, Mr. Zebari said Tuesday that the main areas struck are in the northern provinces of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. Iranian shelling "has been ongoing and unfortunately has become a daily or a routine practice. Recently, we summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a note of protest." "PEJAK sometimes moves in border area, but this does not permit all this continuous, daily and intensive shelling," said Mr. Zebari, a Kurd, who noted that Iraq was prepared to hold negotiations with Iran on the disputes over Kurdish rebel groups. "We hope that these attacks will stop immediately." To some Kurds in the region, they have been living the war for decades, including widespread atrocities blamed on Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. "We are the victims of a continuous struggle. My house was destroyed five times and I rebuilt it. Let this be the sixth time," said Abdullah Wasou Ibrahim, who fled to the refugee camp with 10 family members. September 1, 2007 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version PRAGUE, December 11, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- A two-day conference that includes an examination of whether or not the Holocaust ever took place began today in Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki addressed the participants, saying that Iran intends neither to confirm nor deny the Holocaust. Drawing an implicit comparison with Western countries in which denying the Holocaust is a crime, Mottaki said the gathering provides a platform for open discussion of the topic and questioned a Europe "which claims to be free." Undermining Israel? Iranian officials' assault on one of the most thoroughly documented campaigns of mass murder in history appears aimed at undermining the legitimacy of Israel and focusing attention on the Palestinian exodus. Mottaki today challenged claimants that the Holocaust occurred to explain "why Palestinians should be made to pay for the crimes of the Nazis." "It was only last year that the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for an international day of remembrance and commemoration to the victims of the Holocaust and that resolution specifically condemned Holocaust denial." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev noted that such an approach flies in the face of international awareness and sensitivity to the tragedy. "Unfortunately, the regime in Tehran has decided to give official sanction, official endorsement, to Holocaust denial," Regev said. "It was only last year that the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for an international day of remembrance and commemoration to the victims of the Holocaust and that resolution specifically condemned Holocaust denial." The forum is organized by the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), which calls it a scientific forum to assess the magnitude of the Holocaust. The conference was initiated by Iran's president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust "a myth." Iran does not recognize the state of Israel, and Ahmadinejad has suggested that the Holocaust was invented to justify Israel's existence in the Middle East. He has also called for Israel to be "wiped from the map." Municipal and national officials in Iran indirectly sponsored a recent cartoon contest on the Holocaust that was also condemned by many in the international community. Reports claim that the participants will include a French professor who denies the existence of the gas chambers, Robert Faurisson; Austrian Holocaust revisionist Frederick Toeben; and a white supremacist and former Klu Klux Klan leader who once represented the southern U.S. state of Louisiana, David Duke. Iranian media report that about 60 researchers from 30 countries will deliver speeches with titles like "Holocaust, Figures, Statistics, And Realities," "Historical Documents On The Holocaust," and "Nazism, Holocaust, And The Zionists." International Reaction The conference has been strongly condemned by Jewish groups, Western governments, and world leaders including British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair in January called news of an Iranian plan to host a "Holocaust denial" conference "shocking, ridiculous, and stupid." The United States has also strongly criticized the conference, describing it as a "disgraceful act" by the Iranian government. "As I understand it, this meeting is really focused on highlighting those people who deny that there was, in fact, a Holocaust," U.S. State department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on December 8. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki at the opening of the International Holocaust Conference on December 11 (MNA)The United Nations has said that it deplores the conference. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters in New York on December 7 that Annan regards any attempt to cast doubt on the reality of that "unique and undeniable horror" must be firmly resisted. Dujarric noted that the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in 2005 that "rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or [in] part." Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science at Tehran University, told RFE/RL that he thinks the event damages Iran's national interests and its international image. "As an Iranian, I'm perplexed and astonished by the actions of our foreign ministry. I don't know what is the honor of gathering a group of anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and racists -- and bring them to Iran, for what?" Zibakalam said. "I don't understand what our establishment is trying to gain or to prove by doing this. And this is happening at a time when our nuclear case is at the UN and we have to do our best to gain the trust of the international community." The only Jewish representative in Iran's parliament, Moris Motamed, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the conference has upset Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community. Iranian officials have dismissed suggestions that the event their country denies the crimes perpetrated by Adolf Hitler. Foreign Minister Mottaki today called the Western criticism "predictable" and said the conference does not advocate anti-Semitism, which he described as unique to the West and unprecedented in Islamic countries. Wolfgang Benz, a historian from the Center of Anti-Semitic Research in Berlin, said today that denial of the Holocaust reflects a current agenda for today, rather than a serious occupation with history: "The Holocaust deniers know exactly what happened, they know about the scale of it, but they want to use the Holocaust for a different purpose," Benz said. "They want to articulate anti-Semitism against Israel and the Jews in the world to make an impression on the majority of people who are not informed and uneducated. It is all about politics, not about education or political correctness." The "Jerusalem Post" reported today that an Israeli-Arab lawyer who runs a Holocaust museum in Nazareth was denied a visa to attend the conference. Khaled Muhammed, a lawyer, says he was denied entry to Iran after he sent a copy of his Israeli passport to the Iranian Embassy in Jordan. Related Stories About Iran: # 'Forgotten Victims' Of Saddam Hussein Era Await Justice # Reformist, Fundamentalist Candidates Ruled Out Of Assembly Election # Reformists Reportedly Disqualified From Local Elections # Debate Sharpens Over Gender Segregation # Rumors Persist That Syria Will Attend Iran-Iraq Summit # Prominent Union Leader Arrested In Tehran Other Articles Written By Golnaz Esfandiari: # 'Forgotten Victims' Of Saddam Hussein Era Await Justice # Iraqi President Says Country Needs Iran's Help # Debate Sharpens Over Gender Segregation # Prominent Union Leader Arrested In Tehran # Kabul Conference Discusses Self-Immolation # Activists Say New Dam Threatens Ancient Historical Sites # Argentinian Warrants Urge Rafsanjani's, Ex-Officials' Arrests # Tehran Launches Plan To Expel Illegal Afghan Workers # Lukashenka In Tehran For High-Level Talks # Writers, Publishers Warn Of Industry Clampdown Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2006 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Israel and Iran The gathering storm Jan 7th 2010 | JERUSALEM AND TEL AVIV From The Economist print edition As Israel pushes for sanctions against Iran, it also mulls options for war Israeli AIr Force Raiders of Osiraq Correction to this article SHORTLY after four in the afternoon on June 7th 1981, the late King Hussein of Jordan looked up from his yacht off the port of Aqaba and saw eight Israeli F-16 jets, laden with weapons and external fuel tanks, streaking eastward. He called his military staff, but could not find out what was going on. An hour or so later, the answer became clear. After a ground-hugging infiltration through Saudi Arabia, the jets climbed up near Baghdad and bombed Saddam Hussein’s Osiraq nuclear reactor. Zeev Raz, the squadron’s leader (pictured bottom right), still recalls every phase of “Operation Opera”: his constant worries about running out of fuel; the risky move to jettison tanks, while the bombs were still attached to the wings, to reduce drag; and the loss of a key navigational marker. He overshot his target and had to loop back. He later discovered that his deputy, Amos Yadlin (now Israel’s military-intelligence chief), had slipped ahead and, annoyingly, dropped the first bombs. Somehow the Iraqis were surprised. King Hussein’s tip had not been passed on. And even though Iraq was then at war with Iran, there were no air patrols or active surface-to-air missile batteries. The Israelis encountered only brief anti-aircraft fire. In the cockpit video of the last and most exposed plane, Ilan Ramon (top left), who later died in the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003, is heard grunting nervously. Their mission completed, the jets flew home brazenly on the direct route over Jordan. The Osiraq raid, condemned at the time, is often seen these days as the model for “preventive” military action against nuclear threats. It set back Iraq’s nuclear programme and, after America’s two wars against Iraq in 1991 and 2003, Saddam never built nuclear weapons. Such methods were repeated in September 2007, when Israeli jets destroyed a suspected nuclear reactor under construction in Syria. Now that Iran is moving inexorably closer to an atomic bomb, will the Israeli air force be sent to destroy its nuclear sites? By Israel’s reckoning, Iran will have the know-how to make nuclear weapons within months and, thereafter, could build atomic bombs within a year. Even if Iran does not seek to realise its dreams of wiping out the Jewish state, Israeli officials say a nuclear-armed Iran would lead to “cataclysmic” changes in the Middle East. America would be weakened and Iran become dominant; pro-Western regimes would become embattled, and radical armed groups such as Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza would feel emboldened. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others could, in turn, seek their own nuclear arms. In a multi-nuclear Middle East, Israel’s nuclear arms may not ensure a stabilising, cold-war-style deterrent. “If Iran gets nuclear weapons, the Middle East will look like hell,” says one senior Israeli official. “I cannot imagine that we can live with a nuclear Iran.” For Israel, 2010 is the year of decision. Yet its ability to destroy the nuclear sites is questionable, and such a strike may precipitate a regional war, or worse. Mr Raz, for one, thinks Israel cannot repeat the Osiraq feat. Iran’s nuclear sites are farther away; they are dispersed, and many are buried. The disclosure last year of a secret enrichment facility being dug into a mountain near Qom suggests that there are others undiscovered. “The Iranians are clever. They learnt well from Osiraq,” says Mr Raz. “There is no single target that you can bomb with eight aircraft.” For Mr Raz, Israeli air power could, at most, set the Iranian nuclear programme back by a year or two—not enough to be worth the inevitable Iranian retaliation, which might include rockets fired at Israeli cities by Iran and its allies, Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A more thorough action would require ground troops in Iran, but nobody is contemplating that. Though he now works for a defence-electronics contractor and lives comfortably in a flat with a commanding view over Israel’s narrow coastal plain, Mr Raz exudes gloom. His four children, all adults, are applying for foreign passports—German ones, of all things. His eldest daughter, a mother of two, “does not think Israel is safe any more”—not just because of the prospect of a nuclear Iran, but because years of suicide-bombings and rockets have sapped belief in peace. Her siblings, he says, were persuaded to apply too. This is a surprising admission, particularly from a kibbutz-bred former fighter pilot. Most Israelis still believe in the mystique of their air force. And for much of the past year Israel has been unusually calm. Palestinian suicide-bombings are very rare, and the morale-sapping showers of rockets have all but stopped (see chart above). In Israel’s view this is thanks to the tough security measures it has taken, among them the contentious security barrier in the West Bank, and its willingness to go to war against Hizbullah in 2006 and against Hamas a year ago. “Deterrence is working wonderfully,” says one defence official. But both militias are rearming, partly thanks to help from Iran, with missiles of even greater range that could reach the crowded Tel Aviv region from either Gaza or Lebanon. And the lull has been bought at a serious cost to Israel’s diplomatic standing. An inquiry commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council and headed by a South African judge, Richard Goldstone, found that Israel (and to a lesser extent Hamas) may be guilty of war crimes in Gaza. Europe is regarded as increasingly hostile, a region where Israeli government and military officials travel warily to avoid war-crimes lawsuits. There are doubts even about Israel’s great ally, America, after a spat over Jewish settlements in the West Bank. President Barack Obama may be clever, Israelis say, but he lacks the empathy with Israel shown by his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George Bush. One minister, Limor Livnat, recently said that Israel had “fallen into the hands of a horrible American administration”. Israel thus finds itself in a paradoxical state: more secure for now, but acutely anxious about the future; closer than ever to some Arab regimes because of a perceived common threat from Iran and its radical allies, yet more demonised by its Western friends. Israelis see a global campaign of “delegitimisation” akin to efforts to isolate white-ruled South Africa. “I’m sure the Afrikaners felt like we feel now,” says Mr Raz. For many Israeli strategists, the decision over whether to bomb Iran is the most important in decades—some say since the birth of the Jewish state in 1948. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu—the son of a staunchly nationalist professor of Jewish history, and the younger brother of Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, who died leading the famed rescue of hostages from Entebbe in 1976—is said to feel the weight of history. His office is adorned with portraits of two of his political idols. One is Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. But the other, Winston Churchill, is unusual in a country that regards Britain as having betrayed the Zionist cause when it ruled Palestine. Bibi as Winston Mr Netanyahu draws inspiration from the British wartime leader for reasons both tactical and strategic. Political courage in Israel is often deemed to mean willingness to surrender, after decades of colonisation, the territories captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war; to act like Charles de Gaulle, who gave up Algeria. By holding up Churchill, Mr Netanyahu is saying that courage consists of holding tenaciously to one’s beliefs, regardless of popularity. This model carried special force on the question of Iran. As opposition leader, Mr Netanyahu recalled Churchill’s efforts to awaken the world to the danger of Nazi Germany. “It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany,” he said in 2006. Now that he is in power, pundits ask, might Bibi see himself as the Churchill of the Battle of Britain, fighting alone against Hitler and desperately trying to draw America into the war? Iran is central to Mr Netanyahu’s thinking. It helps explain his surprisingly strong partnership with Ehud Barak, the leader of the Labour Party (and a former army chief of staff and prime minister), trusted as the only man able to handle the big security issues. It helps that he served in Sayeret Matkal, the elite commando unit once led by Mr Barak—and by brother Yoni. Iran affects Mr Netanyahu’s calculations on the Palestinian issue too. He came to office convinced that tackling Iran was a bigger priority than peacemaking with Palestinians. This may have been a convenient argument for a sceptic of the “peace process”. In truth, a peace deal has been difficult ever since the Palestinian movement split violently in 2007 between the Islamists of Hamas who seized Gaza, and the more secular Fatah faction that clings on to bits of the West Bank (with Israeli and American help) under President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Netanyahu argued that even if a deal were possible, a nuclear-armed Iran would unravel any agreements. But in the view of prominent Palestinians such as Ghassan Khatib, a former planning minister, peacefully resolving the nuclear stand-off would help push Hamas into more moderate positions. Under pressure from Mr Obama, who argued that progress on the Palestinian issue would help galvanise an Arab coalition to confront Iran, Mr Netanyahu has since adjusted his positions. He belatedly accepted the idea of a Palestinian “state”, albeit a demilitarised one. And having upset the Obama administration by rejecting its demand for a complete halt to settlement-building, he later announced a unilateral, partial, ten-month suspension. Something is now stirring. During a recent trip to Cairo, Mr Netanyahu seems to have offered enough to win praise from Egypt and start a new flurry of diplomacy that may yet lead to new peace talks. Mr Netanyahu’s aides now speak in Labour-like aphorisms: “We must make progress with Palestinians as if there is no Iran, and confront Iran as if there is no Palestinian issue,” says one. Perhaps there is a bit of de Gaulle in Mr Netanyahu after all. Or perhaps, as one Haaretz columnist, Aluf Benn, noted, the parallel is that Churchill brought America into the war, but lost the empire. Mr Netanyahu has gone along with the Obama administration’s decision to talk directly to Iran. In contrast with the threats issued by the government of his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, his cabinet has been told to keep quiet about military planning, saying only: “All options are on the table”. As one aide puts it: “Those who know will not speak; and those who speak do not know.” Clues in the wind The few public signals seem contradictory. Mr Netanyahu has boosted the defence budget, and the army is planning to distribute gas masks to all citizens next month. Joint missile-defence exercises were held with America in October, and a simulated biological attack is to be rehearsed this month. Despite all this, Mr Barak seemed to recognise the difficulty of curbing Iran’s nuclear programme last month when he told a closed meeting with members of parliament that the Qom site “cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack”. Two war games run recently by academics add to the despondency. In one, played out at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, America was ready to live with a nuclear Iran through containment and nuclear deterrence, and exerted strong pressure on Israel not to take military action. In another war game, held at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies and designed to explore diplomatic options, Iran continued to build up its stock of enriched uranium—even after a simulated Israeli commando raid on one facility under construction. All this suggests that Israel is drawing up military options to attack Iran, but none of them is very appealing. This may explain Israel’s enthusiasm for sanctions. The emergence of an Iranian protest movement raises hopes that the regime could be restrained, perhaps even toppled, by stoking internal pressure. America is rethinking the wisdom of targeting Iran’s most obvious vulnerability: its dependence, because of inefficient refining capacity, on imports of petrol and other fuels. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, now says America will seek to impose penalties on the increasingly powerful Revolutionary Guard, “without contributing to the suffering of the ordinary [Iranians], who deserve better than what they currently are receiving.” Mr Netanyahu’s lieutenants seem inclined the other way. They say ordinary Iranians will blame their government, not the outside world, for any sanctions; so the embargo should be as crushing as possible. Domestic instability should be encouraged. Only a direct threat to the survival of the regime, they believe, will make it think again about seeking nuclear weapons. It is a harsh view, but for Israel the alternatives are even worse. Correction: We originally wrote that the Palestinian movement split violently in 2006, when we meant 2007. This was corrected on January 12th 2010. June 7, 2010 Web of Shell Companies Veils Trade by Iran’s Ships By JO BECKER On Jan. 24, 2009, a rusting freighter flying a Hong Kong flag dropped anchor in the South African port of Durban. The stop was not on the ship’s customary route, and it stayed only an hour, just long enough to pick up its clandestine cargo: a Bladerunner 51 speedboat that could be armed with torpedoes and used as a fast-attack craft in the Persian Gulf. The name painted on the ship’s side as it left Durban and made for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas was the Diplomat, and its papers showed that it was owned by a company called Starry Shine Ltd. Both the name and provenance were of recent vintage. Six months earlier, the Diplomat had been the Iran Mufateh, part of a fleet owned by the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, known as Irisl. Within months of the Durban episode, the United States government put out word that Irisl had renamed the ship and set up Starry Shine to evade American export controls aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining military-use technology like the Bladerunner 51. By that time, though, the freighter had yet another name: the Amplify. Last spotted by an electronic tracking system this April in Karachi, Pakistan, the Amplify was under new management and had a mysterious new owner. But only on paper. The Mufateh-Diplomat-Amplify is part of a great disappearing act, in which Irisl, under pressure from American and other sanctions, has been obscuring the true ownership of its vessels in a web of shell companies stretching across Europe and Asia, a New York Times examination of Irisl’s actions shows. Formed mostly after the United States blacklisted Irisl and all of its ships in 2008, as confederates of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, the corporations often have English names like System Wise and Great Method, which seem to mock American resolve. Now, as Iran continues to defy international calls to rein in its nuclear ambitions, the United Nations Security Council is poised to vote, as soon as this week, on sanctions of its own. Several provisions focus on Irisl, which has been determined by the United Nations to have been involved in a plot to smuggle weapons, in violation of an international embargo that prohibits Iran from exporting arms. But an examination shows how Iran has used a succession of strategems — changing not just ships’ flags and names but their owners, operators and managers, too — to stay one step ahead of its pursuers. This cat-and-mouse game offers a case study in the difficulties of enforcing sanctions. “We are dealing with people who are as smart as we are, and of course they can read our list,” said Stuart A. Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury who oversees the sanctions effort and the blacklist of Irisl and its fleet. That blacklist simply hasn’t kept up. Of the 123 Irisl ships listed, only 46 are still clearly owned by Irisl or its United States-listed subsidiaries, according to an analysis of data from IHS Fairplay, formerly Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay, based in Britain, which issues large merchant vessels their unique identifying numbers and tracks them over their lifetime. Four more were scuttled. The rest — 73 — are now on record as owned and operated by companies that do not appear on the blacklist. The companies are located far from Iran, in places like Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Germany and the Isle of Man. In all but 10 instances, however, records and interviews established definitive links between the ships’ new registered owners and Irisl. The companies are either run by Irisl officials, set up at their behest or wholly owned by Irisl, corporate records and interviews show. Most of the companies’ ships are now operated and managed by three newfound Iranian companies that can be found not at the addresses provided to IHS Fairplay, but at Irisl facilities in Tehran. The Amplify’s registered owner, for instance, is a Hong Kong corporation called Smart Day Holdings, which in turn lists as directors a company in Samoa and another on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man company, Shallon, is part of a network set up with the help of Nigel Howard Malpass, a British shipping consultant who serves on the boards of Smart Day and companies connected to 43 other ships previously registered to Irisl, records show. And the shares of many of those companies are held by yet another Isle of Man company, Woking Limited, which records show is wholly owned by none other than Irisl. “I did used to be involved with Irisl,” Mr. Malpass said in a telephone interview, adding that while he had set up companies at the company’s behest, he had since “disassociated” himself. Irisl, for its part, has repeatedly denied improperly aiding Iran’s military and nuclear programs. Iran’s Ports and Shipping Organization declined requests for an interview about the company and its transformations. Trying to Keep Up In recent months, advocacy groups like Iran Watch have raised questions about Irisl, particularly its practice of changing ship names. But The Times’s findings offer a considerably more extensive picture of the way Irisl has adapted to sanctions — one that goes well beyond the knowledge of even the Treasury Department. Mr. Levey, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, acknowledged that his department had been challenged trying to keep up with Irisl. Though the Treasury Department has accounted for some of the ship-name changes since the sanctions were enacted, it has not added new shell companies controlled by Irisl to the blacklist, or ships that have been launched since then. But Mr. Levey said that no one should be surprised by what Irisl had done. The findings, he said, “reinforce what we have told governments and the private sector — that the Iranian government engages in deception, so they need to look beyond lists of sanctioned entities to protect themselves from potential illicit transactions." The United States sanctions forbid American banks and companies from entering into transactions involving Irisl, its listed subsidiaries and its ships; they also seek to influence other countries and their companies to shun the company. They are based on a concept called “smart sanctions,” tightly focused campaigns that the White House and the Treasury Department believe are more effective than broad trade embargos, which do not single out bad actors. The proposed United Nations sanctions stop short of barring dealings with Irisl. But American officials involved in drafting them say they take into account Irisl’s shell game. For example, they expand upon a 2008 United Nations provision calling for Irisl ships to be boarded and inspected at sea or in port if there are “reasonable grounds to believe” they are carrying contraband forbidden by Security Council resolutions on Iran. The new proposal calls for inspections of all such ships, whether Irisl is the listed owner or not. From the beginning, though, Irisl has sought to outmaneuver its pursuers. Just days after the United Nations enacted the 2008 inspection provision, for instance, an Irisl cargo ship bound for Turkey suddenly made a high-speed, high-seas dash up the Mediterranean to the port of Latakia, Syria. The chase came after a NATO ship, which had been tipped off that the vessel might be carrying weapons, questioned its cargo, according to an account by government officials of the episode, which was previously unreported. Next, Iran began using chartered ships from other countries, ones less likely to raise red flags. But that tactic ultimately backfired when the non-Iranian crews cooperated with requests to inspect the cargo. In three boardings, two by the United States Navy and one by Israeli commandos, authorities said they had discovered a virtual arms bazaar, including thousands of Katyusha rockets, grenades and mortar shells, believed to be intended for Hezbollah. New Flags and Names By the time the United States placed Irisl’s fleet on its sanctions list, in the fall of 2008, the company had already begun its corporate camouflage. The first step, records show, was to replace the ships’ Iranian flags, primarily with those of Germany, Hong Kong and Malta. Over time, almost all got new, innocuous-sounding English names, like the Bluebell and the Angel. One simply became the Alias. Then, with the sanctions in place, three new Iranian companies suddenly appeared on the scene: Hafiz Darya Shipping Lines, Sapid Shipping and Soroush Sarzamin Asatir. In January 2009, it was announced that Hafiz Darya had taken over Irisl’s container ship business in what the shipping trade media reported as a murky deal. Irisl officials, while providing no financial or other details of the deal, insisted that Hafiz Darya was an independent entity, and that the move had been part of a larger government privatization effort. Virtually overnight, Hafiz Darya took Irisl’s spot as the world’s 23rd largest container shipper, while Irisl disappeared from the top 100. Sapid, for its part, took over the operation of 39 blacklisted bulk carrier and general cargo ships, records show. In paperwork they filed with IHS Fairplay, the ship-tracking group, Hafiz Darya and Sapid listed separate addresses in Tehran. Visits to both places yielded no sign of them, though the address provided by Hafiz Darya was home to the “Irisl Club” — a closed-off compound of gardens, reception halls and restaurants for Irisl company use. However, both Hafiz Darya and Sapid were discovered to be working out of the third floor of Irisl’s Aseman Tower headquarters in uptown Tehran. The address provided by Soroush, which manages the ships that Sapid now operates, turned out to be the Irisl Maritime Institute, also in Tehran. Location isn’t the only thing the new companies share with Irisl. In a phone call to Sapid, the company identified Gholamhossein Golparvar as its managing director. Mr. Golparvar was quoted as recently as this Jan. 17 in the Iranian news media as Irisl’s commercial director. Likewise, some of Hafiz Darya’s senior officials also came from Irisl. Akbar Malekfar, for instance, was identified by the company as the head of its Asia Middle East division. He is also one of Irisl’s general managers, according to the state-owned company’s Web site. Together, Hafiz Darya, Sapid, and Soroush operate or manage 46 of the blacklisted ships that have been transferred to new registered owners, records show. And as was the case with the Diplomat-turned-Amplify, the corporate reports of those new owners always lead back to Irisl. The owners of two ships, the Acena and the Lancelin, for instance, are two companies in Cyprus, where records show that Irisl is the sole shareholder. The companies’ directors are Mohammad Hadi Pajand, who works for Irisl in London, and Ahmad Sarkandi, an Irisl official implicated by the United States in the smuggling of the British-designed powerboat, the Bladerunner 51. Sanctions Fall Short Irisl’s maneuvering may help it with a continuing problem. Britain, home to some of the world’s largest shipping insurers, placed its own sanctions on Irisl last fall. As a result, policies were canceled for many Irisl-owned ships. But the British sanctions, as well as a subsequent ban enacted by the ship insurance center of Bermuda, only cover Irisl, not subsidiaries or related entities. And records show that British and Bermudan companies still insure at least 10 ships owned by Irisl subsidiaries that are on the American blacklist. (It is unclear who is insuring some of the ships owned by less transparent Irisl-linked companies.) As difficult as it is to keep track of ships that are on the blacklist, ships that have never been listed present an even greater challenge. Irisl has taken great care to hide its connections to vessels that have been launched since the blacklist was issued. Early this year, for instance, five corporate transactions were recorded in Malta in which the ownership of five ships changed hands. All the ships — the Baani, Haami, Shaadi, Aali and Baaghi — had been completed and inspected in either 2009 or 2010, with a building price of $29 million apiece, according to IHS Fairplay. In each case, IHS Fairplay records show that the vessels came out of the shipyards and into the ownership hands of Maltese shipping companies named Petsworth, Quinns, Reigate, Oxted and New Haven. Still, buried deep within Maltese corporate records was the fact that Irisl owned the stock in those companies. In the five simultaneous transactions on Jan. 26, Irisl attempted to sever even that link, transferring its shares in each company to three Iranians. It turns out, though, that two of those Iranians, who together, records show, now own the majority of stock, are Irisl officials. The records also offer an additional detail that raises questions about whether these were truly arm’s-length transactions: In each case, the price per share was 2.33 euros, or $3.28 at the time, meaning that Irisl effectively sold companies that owned ships with a combined value of $145 million for a total of $8,200. William Yong contributed reporting from Tehran, Kitty Bennett from St. Petersburg, Fla., and Stefan Pauly from Berlin. 'Kill all Jews and annihilate Israel!' Iran's Ayatollah lays out legal and religious justification for attack Doctrine says Israel would be wiped out in 9 minutes By Lee Moran Last updated at 3:52 PM on 6th February 2012 Comments (14) Share Ties: A website associated with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has outlined why it would be acceptable to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel Ties: A website associated with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has outlined why it would be acceptable to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel A website with close ties to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has outlined why it would be acceptable to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel. Conservative site Alef has published a doctrine detailing why the destruction of the nation and the slaughter of all its people would be legally and morally justified. It warned that the chance to remove the 'corrupting material' of Israel must not be lost - and that it would only take nine minutes to wipe it out. And it said it was a 'jurisprudential justification' for Iran's Islamic government to then take the helm. The article, written by Khamenei's strategy specialist Alireza Forghani, is now being run on most state-owned conservative sites, indicating it has the regime's support. The crux of piece said Iran would be justified in launching a pre-emptive strike against Israel because of the threat the Jewish state's leaders are posing against its own nuclear facilities. More... Meet Iran's female ninja assassins: 3,000 women training to defend the Muslim state Iran bans the Simpsons... but Spiderman and Superman are allowed as they help 'the oppressed' It said Israel would need U.S. approval and help to carry out such an attack, and that because of acurrent passive climate in America the time for Iran to strike was now. Danger: The dossier said that Ghadr missiles could be used to target urban settlements until the Israelis were wiped out Danger: The dossier said that Ghadr missiles could be used to target urban settlements until the Israelis were wiped out Listing statistics that reveal 5.7million of Israel's 7.5million citizens are Jewish, the dangerous dossier, discovered by WND, breaks down the districts with the highest concentration of Jews. Ruler: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited South America recently to build relationships with leaders Ruler: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited South America recently to build relationships with leaders It states that Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa contain more than 60 per cent of the Jewish population, which could be hit by Shahab 3 ballistic missiles to easily kill everyone. Sejil missiles, which are almost impossible to intercept, could be used to hit key nuclear plants - including Israel's main engineering centre Rafael and the Eilun and Nebrin plants. They could also targety the Dimona reactor, in the nuclear research centre in Neqeb, which produces 90 per cent of the enriched uranium used in Israel's nuclear weapons. Airports, air force bases, power plants, sewage treatment facilities and energy resources would also be hit. And, the dossier concluded, Ghadr missiles could also be used to target urban settlements until the Israelis were wiped out. The publication of the doctrine comes after Khamenei announced on Friday that Iran would support any nation or group that attacks the 'cancerous tumour' of Israel. Iran 'Israel spy' put to death in Iran Iran has hanged a telecoms engineer convicted of spying for Israel, reports from Tehran say. Ali Ashtari, an Iranian, was convicted in June of spying for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. A video said to be of his confession was broadcast on TV. He was convicted of sending "sensitive information on military, defence and research centres" for three years. Israeli officials were quoted in June as saying that Israel was not familiar with the case. Announcing the execution, which reportedly took place on Monday, Iran's official news agency said the case against the 45-year-old was clear and his appeal was summarily dismissed. "He had spied for Mossad for three years," the state news agency quoted the intelligence ministry's director of counter-terrorism as saying. I feared going to the intelligence ministry, and this fear was the reason why I kept choosing the wrong path, Ali Ashtari Confession broadcast on Iranian TV "His espionage was so evident," the unnamed official said. Officials said Ashtari was recruited by Israeli secret services to intercept the communications of Iranian officials working in the military and its controversial nuclear programme. Broadcasting his apparent confession, state TV showed Ashtari sitting down wearing an open-necked shirt and jumper. "It was my mistake and perhaps I feared going to the intelligence ministry, and this fear was the reason why I kept choosing the wrong path," he said, speaking into the camera. "Do not repeat the mistakes that I made." The case unfolded throughout the year against a backdrop of concerns in Iran that Israel was planning to launch a pre-emptive strike against its nuclear facilities. Israel is a leading advocate of strong action against Tehran, which it believes is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies that charge, saying its nuclear programme is intended for energy supply only. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7743638.stm Published: 2008/11/22 13:05:31 GMT © BBC MMVIII For Iraqis, learning Hebrew is a mixed blessing By Sammy Ketz (AFP) – 1 day ago BAGHDAD — Wearing an elegant pink headscarf, Marwa Abdel Karim serenades her fellow Baghdad University students with a heartfelt rendition of "Filled With Love," remarkable for the language in which it is sung -- Hebrew. She is one of the 150 students at the university's Hebraic department, studying the language of Israel in an Arab country that has never had ties with the Jewish state and where most people regard it as an enemy. For the first time since it was set up 40 years ago, the department organised a festival earlier this month where students sang songs and recited poetry for an enthralled audience of about 100, and gifted tutors with presents. At the festival, the joyous mood was tempered by bemusement among students at the peculiar circumstances that led them to study Hebrew and the lack of job opportunities for graduates. None of them originally chose to study Hebrew. They wanted English, French, German and Spanish but inadequate grades limited their options to Persian, Kurdish and Hebrew. "I wanted to study English but I did not obtain good enough grades in my diploma, so I found myself learning Hebrew," says Marwa, 21, who enthralled the audience with her song by Israeli artist Sarit Hadad, which she discovered on the Internet. "My parents are disappointed, but I took my chance with this language. "When I say to my friends that I study Hebrew they laugh at me, but I intend to continue my studies in Amman and then teach at the University of Baghdad," she says with a smile. Before the 2003 toppling of president Saddam Hussein by US forces, students of Hebrew often secured jobs with the intelligence services. Such employment, however, is now limited because terrorism rather than espionage is Iraq's major security concern. "When I complete my studies I will knock on all doors -- the intelligence service, the foreign affairs ministry and the newspapers who need translators," says Ahmed Saadun, 22, a third-year undergraduate. In a humorous festival sketch poking fun at his own dismal job prospects, he answers a fellow student who asks him what he will do when he leaves university. "Nothing. But at least I had four years in the company of pretty girls." The students learn Hebrew language, grammar, literature and the songs of the Hebrew bible, but confess they have never met a Jew. "I used the Internet to communicate with them but no one responded," says Saadun. Ancient Babylon, in modern-day Iraq, once boasted a large Jewish community but the numbers dwindled over time. There has been no discernible community since Iraqi Jews headed to Israel in the years after the Jewish state was founded in 1948. By 1951, 120,000 Jews -- nearly the entire community -- had emigrated. The remaining handful fled after the 2003 US-led invasion which ousted Saddam. Iraq is the only Arab country that fought in the 1948 war with Israel but never signed the 1949 ceasefire. Saddam's enmity for Israel was borne out during the 1991 Gulf War following his invasion of Kuwait, when he fired Scud missiles at Tel Aviv in an attempt to bolster his position among Arab states. There are no diplomatic relations and Iraq's post-Saddam constitution is silent on the issue of ties. Professor Talib al-Qureshi, head of the university's faculty of languages, believes that despite the difficulties there are good opportunities for Hebrew-language graduates. "Many think it is a waste of time but Hebrew is very important," says the 57-year-old academic with a doctorate in the language. "People who speak Hebrew have very important positions in the world. The best will find work," he says of his students. Trade opportunities with Israel are stymied by a law that bars Iraqis from signing business contracts with Israel, and buying through third-party agents make imports prohibitively expensive. The 30 teachers in the university's Hebrew department are Muslims and Christians, while the department's library books are dilapidated and in need of replacement. Qureshi's dream is to create a Museum of Jewish Culture in Iraq, and he insists there is an urgent need to recover thousands of ancient Hebrew texts discovered by US forces in the offices of Saddam's intelligence services after the invasion and taken to the United States. Iraq's deputy culture minister, Taher Nasser al-Hamood, discussed the subject on a visit to the United States earlier this month. "The Americans have been very cooperative," he told AFP. Europe’s veil of fear Special: Latest firebombing of French magazine highlights Islamist threat to freedom Giulio Meotti Published: 11.05.11, 21:18 / Israel News The office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was badly damaged by a firebomb on Wednesday, after it published a spoof issue "guest edited" by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of the Islamist party in Tunisia’s elections. The magazine had announced a special issue for publication, renamed "Charia Hebdo," a play on the French word for Islamic law. The magazine’s website has also been hacked with a message in English and Turkish. The fatwa said: "You keep abusing Islam’s almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech. Be Allah’s curse upon you!" Taking Liberties Anger as Muslims demonstrate with yellow Star of David / Ynet Muslim protest against discrimination in Switzerland uses Holocaust symbol; move condemned by Jewish groups as well as some Muslim groups. With one newspaper claiming move was 'simply idiotic' Full story Charlie Hebdo is the latest in a series of "blasphemous pencils" – European cartoonists, writers and journalists threatened with death for their criticism about Islam. They are people who need a level of personal protection unconceivable even in Israel, a country well-known for its attention to security. And it happens all over Europe. Kurt Westergaard is the most famous of them. I spoke with him immediately after the attack in Paris. Westergaard is the Danish artist who created the controversial cartoon of the Prophet wearing a bomb in his turban: "Few days ago the police discovered another terrorist plan to attack my newspaper, the Jyllands Posten," Westergaard said. "My house is protected as a bunker with cameras. I am always guarded by the policemen. Few months ago I had to attend a book presentation in Oslo. But the day before the Norwegian police asked me to cancel the event due to the terrorist threats." Five years after the publication of the cartoons, Westergaard still needs the same level of security of a Danish prime minister. "I am not a brave man, but I am 76-years-old and have less fear of dying", the cartoonist said. "The terrorists won’t silence me in the battle for the freedom of expression." Visiting the Jyllands Posten’s office is like entering a US embassy in an Arab country. The newspaper had erected a 2.5-metre high, one-kilometer long barbed-wire fence, complete with electronic surveillance, around its headquarters in Visby. Mail is scanned and newspaper staff members need ID cards to enter the buildings and the various floors. Muslims praying in the streets of Paris (Photo: AFP) Flemming Rose is the cultural editor who took the initiative of publishing the cartoons. When he attended a conference in Oxford, the British police had to set up "the same protection as for Michael Jackson." In Sweden the target is Lars Vilks, who was even named in a threat message sent prior to a suicide bombing in Stockholm last year. In the Netherlands, where filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed by a fundamentalist for his criticism of Islam, cartoonist Gregorious Nekshot uses a pseudonym to protect his own identity. 'Atmosphere of fear' The office of Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP famous for his critics of Islam, lies in the most isolated corner of Parliament. It was chosen because potential terrorists can get through only one corridor, making it easier to protect him. Even the pencils of visitors are searched by the police. Wilders’ entourage is anonymous. He even slept for a while in a military barrack for security reasons. When the alert level is high, Wilders doesn’t know where he will spend the night. "I could go to a restaurant, but the police should empty it before my arrival," Wilders once told me. At the University of Leiden, Rembrandt’s famous city, the office of Professor Afshin Ellian is protected by bulletproof walls and policemen. "In Holland Rousseau, Locke, Sade and Spinoza were able to publish their books," Ellian said during our meeting in Leiden. "Holland was the hope of Europe. But it’s no more. Now there is an atmosphere of fear if you criticize Islam." I just recently spoke with Robert Redeker, the professor of philosophy condemned to death for an article in Le Figaro newspaper. His piece, a response to the controversy over remarks about Islam made a week earlier by Pope Benedict XVI, was titled "What should the free world do in the face of Islamist intimidation?" It was a fierce critique of what Redeker called Islam’s attempt "to place its leaden cloak over the world." On an Islamist website, he was sentenced to death in a posting that, in order to facilitate a potential assassin’s task, also provided his address, telephone and a photograph of his home. "I just went to Austria for a conference and even there the bodyguards were always with me," Redeker said. The police did not even allow him to announce his father’s death, because someone could have noted the surname. "I had to bury my father like a criminal," he said. The marriage of his daughter was also attended by the police. Redeker had to sell his house and buy another one in a secret location. "I cannot go out to buy bread or newspapers or for a glass of wine. I cannot walk in the streets. I am a refugee in my own country. I cannot take the train, bus or subway. I cannot answer the question of what I can expect from the future. This new situation has changed my perception of time…It’s as there is no future for me." Europe is also becoming a no-go area also for Israelis. Last July, Israeli historian Benny Morris was walking towards the London School of Economics. He was accosted by a group of keffiyah-clad Muslims who, recognizing him, started hurling abuse, shouting and screaming in his face that he was a "fascist", "murderer", "racist" and that the UK shouldn’t have let him speak. The police were called, but when they arrived, the Muslims disappeared. When Morris finished his lesson on Israel’s war of 1948, he was unceremoniously bundled away through the back exit of the faculty, past the garbage cans, out of fear for his safety if he left the building in the normal manner. "I felt like a Jew in Berlin in the 1920s," Morris told me. Kurt Westergaard’s last cartoon captured the atmosphere in Europe well. It depicts Westergaard as Don Quixote, leaving a donkey carrying a bomb with the word "ytringsfrihed" (freedom of speech.) Under the cartoon it says: "The Don Quixote of idealism says goodbye and thank you. The Sancho Panza of reality remains - for now." Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism It is time to banish wishful thinking about Islamism By Ayaan Hirsi Ali A year ago many western commentators were celebrating an Arab spring. The internet generation personified by Wael Ghonim, the Google marketing executive, would take over power from military dictators and absolute monarchs in democratic elections. Those of us who warned that political Islam would be the principal beneficiary of elections in north Africa and the Middle East were dismissed as scaremongers. Ever since 9/11, opinions in the west have been sharply divided on the popularity and legitimacy of political Islam. A minority – and I am one of them – argued that Islamism as a political doctrine was held by the mainstream in most of the House of Islam and particularly among Arabs; that violence was inherent in Islamist theory; and that if Islamists won state power they would not deliver prosperity. Go through the literature of the past decade on this and you will find that initially most thinkers agreed with the second and third observations but dismissed the first as an unfair stereotyping of Muslims in general and Arabs in particular. The majority of western policymakers clung to the hope that Islamism as a political doctrine was accepted only by a fringe. The fringe thesis inspired a series of policies aimed at capturing and/or killing the ultraradical violent leaders and marginalising the remainder. In the United States, conservatives and liberals accepted the basic assumptions of the fringe thesis but differed only in their methods. What has become clear after the uprisings of the past year is that Islamism is in fact mainstream, not fringe. The elections in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt confirm that it is secular individuals and groups who are on the fringes of Arab politics. You would think the wishful thinkers among commentators would by now have accepted this. Instead, they have moved all too easily to the fresh delusion that a fringe group among Islamists is “extreme” and “violent”, whereas mainstream Islamists are not. Indeed, we should learn to view them as we view the Christian democrats of western Europe – a view advanced recently by Germany’s foreign minister, or, perhaps more plausibly, like the Islamists who govern Turkey. This is the same train of thought that has led some analysts to call for talks with the Taliban. It is based once again on the premise that there are some “good” (read non-violent) elements in the Taliban and some “bad” (violent) ones. But in this new perception, the good Talibs are the mainstream and the violent ones are marginal. And so the fringe thesis is adjusted, but not discarded. To compare Islamists of today with the Christian democrats of postwar Europe is absurd. To take them at their word that they will govern like the Islamists of Turkey is not much better. Europe’s Christian democrats may claim to be inspired by the Bible but they would not dream of proposing legislation straight from the book of Leviticus. By contrast, the Islamists of north Africa and the Middle East have for decades promoted the agenda that legislation should come from the suras of the Koran and other Islamic scripture. The leaders of the political parties of the Brotherhood movement in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have insisted they are no different from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). They say they will adopt the same economic policies as the AKP. Surveys by Pew and others show that, all over north Africa, the government in Ankara is seen as a role model. Yet the circumstances of Turkey are radically different from these north African states. In the 1920s, under Kemal Ataturk, Turkey embarked on a sustained policy of westernisation. Ataturk’s reforms, more than anything the AKP has done, help explain why the Turkish economy is among the most dynamic in the Muslim world. The AKP’s Islamist zeal is checked by the military, judiciary and press – though for how much longer remains to be seen. These checks and balances are largely absent in the Arab world, as are the basic institutions conducive to economic prosperity. What is the likelihood then that Islamist parties will discard the project to impose sharia law that they have been promoting for decades? I think it is very low. My expectation is that Islamist parties will sweet-talk their voters and the west until their power is well established and then govern like Iran’s regime or Hamas in Gaza. The transition from closed to open societies will be slow and painful for the Arab-Muslim world. Given that, it would be better for the west to invest in the future by offering more support to the secular groups that brought about this revolution. Cairo is not Ankara post-Ataturk, much less Bonn post-Adenauer. It is time to abandon the overconfident assumption that there is a moderate mainstream in the Arab world. The writer is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of ‘Infidel’ and ‘Nomad’ Op-Ed: Arabs Have Black Slaves - Today A shocking article for Passover. Dr. Charles Jacobs The author is president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance. ► More from this writer Published: Friday, March 29, 2013 8:36 AM There is no Arab Apartheid Week on American campuses, but there should be. Slavery, in its most barbaric form, still exists in the Arab world and there is no Exodus in sight either. Israel Apartheid Week has come and gone this year on many American campuses. It was, of course, a hoax: However much one says that Arabs in Israel suffer, and whoever is to blame for that alleged suffering, there is no apartheid in Israel. Meanwhile, however, in Sudan and Mauritania, racist Arab societies enslave blacks. Today. Most of the slaves are African Muslims. Yet there is no Arab Apartheid Week on American campuses. Why not? One might think American student activists would be upset about Mauritania, the West African country with the largest population of black slaves in the world – estimates range from 100,000 to more than a half-million. In Mauritania, slaves are used for labor, sex and breeding. The wholly owned property of their masters, they are passed down through generations, given as wedding gifts or exchanged for camels, trucks, guns or money. Surely, life is not so good in a Palestinian Arab refugee camp– no matter who is to blame, but it’s undeniably a whole lot worse for Mauritanian slaves. According to a Human Rights Watch/Africa report, routine punishments for slaves in Mauritania – for the slightest fault – include beatings, denial of food and prolonged exposure to the sun, with hands and feet tied together. More serious infringement of the master’s rule (in American slave-owning parlance, “getting uppity”) can lead to prolonged tortures known as “the camel treatment,” in which the slave’s body is slowly torn apart; the“insect treatment,” in which tiny desert insects are inserted and sealed into the ear canal until the slave is driven mad; and“burning coals,” a torture not fit to describe in a family newspaper. The cases that the rights groups focus upon are not determined by the nature, extent or degree of suffering by the victims, but rather by the identity of those thought to be the oppressors. Perhaps the reason for silence on campuses about these things is that the story of black slaves and their Arab masters remains unknown there. It would, of course, be a sensitive topic: slavery has existed in Mauritania since the 12th century, when Arab tribes from the Arabian Peninsula invaded and conquered North Africa. Raiders then stormed African villages to the south, pillaging, enslaving and converting the indigenous peoples to Islam. While the Koran forbids the enslavement of fellow Muslims, just as in the West, in North Africa racism trumped religious doctrine. The descendants of those Arab invaders are today’s slave owners. The descendants of those captured as slaves in jihad raids are in human bondage today. These are, then, black Muslim slaves – who, for racist reasons, aren’t allowed to touch the Koran with their black hands, who can’t marry without their owners’ permission, and whose children belong to the master. Not all blacks in Mauritania are slaves. But all are oppressed by Arab colonialism. Arab Berbers (or “White Africans”) constitute less than a third of Mauritania’s population of 3.5 million people, but they control the government and military, as well as the education and the court systems. I interviewed Saidou Wane, a Mauritanian immigrant who lives in Cincinnati and speaks regularly on behalf of the Movement for Justice and Equality in Mauritania (MJEM). Saidou reports that the Mauritanian regime is constantly working to cleanse the country of any non-Arab influence. The state recognizes only Arabic as an official language, refuses to acknowledge the local African languages (Wolof, Fulani, Soninke), and allows only French and Arabic in school curricula. In other cases, this would easily be termed “cultural cleansing.” Indeed, it might be even worse than apartheid: The government has expropriated land owned by black Africans through expulsion and dispossession. An ethnic cleansing campaign that began in 1989 led to the expulsion of an estimated 100,000 blacks from Mauritania. The government and army were purged of black officers. Amnesty International reported that thousands of blacks were killed, and many tortured, while hundreds of African villages in the south were demolished. Mauritania holds the distinction of being the last nation on earth to legally abolish slavery, which it did, with no mechanisms of enforcement, in 1981. Slavery was not criminalized until 2007, but to date there has been only one single conviction. Why hasn’t any of this been addressed by Western governments? For one, the Mauritanian regime, once a supporter of Saddam Hussein, has ingratiated itself with the United States and Europe through promises to help fight al-Qaeda. And then in December 2012, in a move that defined it as the morally bankrupt institution it is, the United Nations (U.N.) Human Rights Council elected Mauritania as its vice president and rapporteur. What about the silence of Western progressives? I call it the “human-rights complex:” The cases that the rights groups focus upon are not determined by the nature, extent or degree of suffering by the victims, but rather by the identity of those thought to be the oppressors. Think about it: Most human-rights advocates in the West are decent, middle-class whites who are defensive about past Western sins – slavery, colonialism, racism. Their activism is a matter of personal identity. They act to be exonerated, to be seen as innocents, guiltless, not like the “bad white” exploiters. They march under the banner of “Not in My Name.” Anti-Israel propagandists have inverted reality in the minds of many of these people: Jews have been transformed from last century’s stateless, Asiatic, non-Europeans, to whites with power who behave badly toward innocent, impoverished, indigenous, darker-skinned people. This is precisely the taint that many “rights activists” wish to avoid:“people who look like us, behaving badly.” Israel Apartheid Week – and the absence of Arab Apartheid Week – have nothing to do with external realities, or actual suffering but are the psychodramatic results of miseducated, manipulated, guilt-ridden, American middle-class youth. The biggest victims here, of course, are those oppressed by non-Westerners (women, gays, Christians, blacks, and other minorities in the Muslim realm) who cannot break through the fog of political correctness to reach the good but blinded souls of American students on campus. In 2012, CNN reporters interviewed Moulkheir Yarba, who escaped her master after he raped her, fathered her child and then left the baby to die in the Sahara Desert – to teach her to “work faster.” If Moulkheir could understand how America, a nation of abolitionists, has so enchained itself with political correctness, and become so blinded to her plight, she would weep. As should we. THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army The Counterproliferation Papers Future Warfare Series No. 2 USAF Counterproliferation Center Air War College Air University Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama September 1999 The Counterproliferation Papers Series was established by the USAF Counterproliferation Center to provide information and analysis to U.S. national security policy-makers and USAF officers to assist them in countering the threat posed by adversaries equipped with weapons of mass destruction. Copies of papers in this series are available from the USAF Counterproliferation Center, 325 Chennault Circle, Maxwell AFB AL 36112-6427. The fax number is (334) 953-7538; phone (334) 953-7538. Counterproliferation Paper No. 2 USAF Counterproliferation Center Air War College Air University Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama 36112-6427 The internet address for the USAF Counterproliferation Center is: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-cps.htm Contents: Page Disclaimer i The Author ii Acknowledgments iii Abstract iv I. Introduction 1 II. 1948-1962: With French Cooperation 3 III. 1963-1973: Seeing the Project Through to Completion 9 IV. 1974-1999: Bringing the Bomb Up the Basement Stairs 15 Appendix: Estimates of the Israeli Nuclear Arsenal 23 Notes 25 Disclaimer The views expressed in this publication are those solely of the author and are not a statement of official policy or position of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, or the USAF Counterproliferation Center. The Author Colonel Warner D. “Rocky” Farr, Medical Corps, Master Flight Surgeon, U.S. Army, graduated from the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama before becoming the Command Surgeon, U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He also serves as the Surgeon for the U.S. Army Special Forces Command, U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, and the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. With thirty-three years of military service, he holds an Associate of Arts from the State University of New York, Bachelor of Science from Northeast Louisiana University, Doctor of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Masters of Public Health from the University of Texas, and has completed medical residencies in aerospace medicine, and anatomic and clinical pathology. He is the only army officer to be board certified in these three specialties. Solo qualified in the TH-55A Army helicopter, he received flight training in the T-37 and T-38 aircraft as part of his USAF School of Aerospace Medicine residency. Colonel Farr was a Master Sergeant Special Forces medic prior to receiving a direct commission to second lieutenant. He is now the senior Special Forces medical officer in the U.S. Army with prior assignments in the 5th, 7th, and 10th Special Forces Groups (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, in Vietnam, the United States, and Germany. He has advised the 12th and 20th Special Forces Groups (Airborne) in the reserves and national guard, served as Division Surgeon, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), and as the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Aeromedical Center, Fort Rucker, Alabama. Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the assistance, guidance and encouragement from my Air War College (AWC) faculty research advisor, Dr. Andrew Terrill, instructor of the Air War College Arab-Israeli Wars course. Thanks are also due to the great aid of the Air University librarians. The author is also indebted to Captain J. R. Saunders, USN and Colonel Robert Sutton, USAF. Who also offered helpful suggestions. Abstract This paper is a history of the Israeli nuclear weapons program drawn from a review of unclassified sources. Israel began its search for nuclear weapons at the inception of the state in 1948. As payment for Israeli participation in the Suez Crisis of 1956, France provided nuclear expertise and constructed a reactor complex for Israel at Dimona capable of large-scale plutonium production and reprocessing. The United States discovered the facility by 1958 and it was a subject of continual discussions between American presidents and Israeli prime ministers. Israel used delay and deception to at first keep the United States at bay, and later used the nuclear option as a bargaining chip for a consistent American conventional arms supply. After French disengagement in the early 1960s, Israel progressed on its own, including through several covert operations, to project completion. Before the 1967 Six-Day War, they felt their nuclear facility threatened and reportedly assembled several nuclear devices. By the 1973 Yom Kippur War Israel had a number of sophisticated nuclear bombs, deployed them, and considered using them. The Arabs may have limited their war aims because of their knowledge of the Israeli nuclear weapons. Israel has most probably conducted several nuclear bomb tests. They have continued to modernize and vertically proliferate and are now one of the world's larger nuclear powers. Using “bomb in the basement” nuclear opacity, Israel has been able to use its arsenal as a deterrent to the Arab world while not technically violating American nonproliferation requirements. The Third Temple's Holy of Holies: Israel's Nuclear Weapons Warner D. Farr I. Introduction This is the end of the Third Temple. - Attributed to Moshe Dayan during the Yom Kippur War[1] As Zionists in Palestine watched World War II from their distant sideshow, what lessons were learned? The soldiers of the Empire of Japan vowed on their emperor's sacred throne to fight to the death and not face the inevitability of an American victory. Many Jews wondered if the Arabs would try to push them into the Mediterranean Sea. After the devastating American nuclear attack on Japan, the soldier leaders of the empire reevaluated their fight to the death position. Did the bomb give the Japanese permission to surrender and live? It obviously played a military role, a political role, and a peacemaking role. How close was the mindset of the Samurai culture to the Islamic culture? Did David Ben-Gurion take note and wonder if the same would work for Israel?[2] Could Israel find the ultimate deterrent that would convince her opponents that they could never, ever succeed? Was Israel's ability to cause a modern holocaust the best way to guarantee never having another one? The use of unconventional weapons in the Middle East is not new. The British had used chemical artillery shells against the Turks at the second battle of Gaza in 1917. They continued chemical shelling against the Shiites in Iraq in 1920 and used aerial chemicals in the 1920s and 1930s in Iraq.[3] Israel's involvement with nuclear technology starts at the founding of the state in 1948. Many talented Jewish scientists immigrated to Palestine during the thirties and forties, in particular, Ernst David Bergmann. He would become the director of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission and the founder of Israel's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Bergmann, a close friend and advisor of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, counseled that nuclear energy could compensate for Israel's poor natural resources and small pool of military manpower. He pointed out that there was just one nuclear energy, not two, suggesting nuclear weapons were part of the plan.[4] As early as 1948, Israeli scientists actively explored the Negev Desert for uranium deposits on orders from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. By 1950, they found low-grade deposits near Beersheba and Sidon and worked on a low power method of heavy water production.[5] The newly created Weizmann Institute of Science actively supported nuclear research by 1949, with Dr. Bergmann heading the chemistry division. Promising students went overseas to study nuclear engineering and physics at Israeli government expense. Israel secretly founded its own Atomic Energy Commission in 1952 and placed it under the control of the Defense Ministry.[6] The foundations of a nuclear program were beginning to develop. II. 1948-1962: With French Cooperation It has always been our intention to develop a nuclear potential. - Ephraim Katzir[7] In 1949, Francis Perrin, a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission, nuclear physicist, and friend of Dr. Bergmann visited the Weizmann Institute. He invited Israeli scientists to the new French nuclear research facility at Saclay. A joint research effort was subsequently set up between the two nations. Perrin publicly stated in 1986 that French scientists working in America on the Manhattan Project and in Canada during World War II were told they could use their knowledge in France provided they kept it a secret.[8] Perrin reportedly provided nuclear data to Israel on the same basis.[9] One Israeli scientist worked at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory and may have directly brought expertise home.[10] After the Second World War, France's nuclear research capability was quite limited. France had been a leading research center in nuclear physics before World War II, but had fallen far behind the U.S., the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom, and even Canada. Israel and France were at a similar level of expertise after the war, and Israeli scientists could make significant contributions to the French effort. Progress in nuclear science and technology in France and Israel remained closely linked throughout the early fifties. Israeli scientists probably helped construct the G-1 plutonium production reactor and UP-1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule.[11] France profited from two Israeli patents on heavy water production and low-grade uranium enrichment.[12] In the 1950s and into the early 1960s, France and Israel had close relations in many areas. France was Israel's principal arms supplier, and as instability spread through French colonies in North Africa, Israel provided valuable intelligence obtained from contacts with sephardic Jews in those countries. The two nations collaborated, with the United Kingdom, in planning and staging the Suez Canal-Sinai operation against Egypt in October 1956. The Suez Crisis became the real genesis of Israel's nuclear weapons production program. With the Czech-Egyptian arms agreement in 1955, Israel became worried. When absorbed, the Soviet-bloc equipment would triple Egyptian military strength. After Egypt's President Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran in 1953, Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion ordered the development of chemical munitions and other unconventional munitions, including nuclear.[13] Six weeks before the Suez Canal operation, Israel felt the time was right to approach France for assistance in building a nuclear reactor. Canada had set a precedent a year earlier when it had agreed to build a 40-megawatt CIRUS reactor in India. Shimon Peres, the Director-General of the Defense Ministry and aide to Prime Minister (and Defense Minister) David Ben-Gurion, and Bergmann met with members of the CEA (France's Atomic Energy Commission). During September 1956, they reached an initial understanding to provide a research reactor. The two countries concluded final agreements at a secret meeting outside Paris where they also finalized details of the Suez Canal operation.[14] For the United Kingdom and France, the Suez operation, launched on October 29, 1956, was a total disaster. Israel's part was a military success, allowing it to occupy the entire Sinai Peninsula by 4 November, but the French and British canal invasion on 6 November was a political failure. Their attempt to advance south along the Suez Canal stopped due to a cease-fire under fierce Soviet and U.S. pressure. Both nations pulled out, leaving Israel to face the pressure from the two superpowers alone. Soviet Premier Bulganin and President Khrushchev issued an implicit threat of nuclear attack if Israel did not withdraw from the Sinai. On 7 November 1956, a secret meeting was held between Israeli foreign minister Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, and French foreign and defense ministers Christian Pineau and Maurice Bourges-Manoury. The French, embarrassed by their failure to support their ally in the operation, found the Israelis deeply concerned about a Soviet threat. In this meeting, they substantially modified the initial understanding beyond a research reactor. Peres secured an agreement from France to assist Israel in developing a nuclear deterrent. After further months of negotiation, agreement was reached for an 18-megawatt (thermal) research reactor of the EL-3 type, along with plutonium separation technology. France and Israel signed the agreement in October 1957.[15] Later the reactor was officially upgraded to 24 megawatts, but the actual specifications issued to engineers provided for core cooling ducts sufficient for up to three times this power level, along with a plutonium plant of similar capacity. Data from insider reports revealed in 1986 would estimate the power level at 125-150 megawatts.[16] The reactor, not connected to turbines for power production, needed this increase in size only to increase its plutonium production. How this upgrade came about remains unknown, but Bourges-Maunoury, replacing Mollet as French prime minister, may have contributed to it.[17] Shimon Peres, the guiding hand in the Israeli nuclear program, had a close relationship with Bourges-Maunoury and probably helped him politically.[18] Why was France so eager to help Israel? DeMollet and then de Gaulle had a place for Israel within their strategic vision. A nuclear Israel could be a counterforce against Egypt in France's fight in Algeria. Egypt was openly aiding the rebel forces there. France also wanted to obtain the bomb itself. The United States had embargoed certain nuclear enabling computer technology from France. Israel could get the technology from America and pass it through to France. The U.S. furnished Israel heavy water, under the Atoms for Peace program, for the small research reactor at Soreq. France could use this heavy water. Since France was some years away from nuclear testing and success, Israeli science was an insurance policy in case of technical problems in France's own program.[19] The Israeli intelligence community's knowledge of past French (especially Vichy) anti-Semitic transgressions and the continued presence of former Nazi collaborators in French intelligence provided the Israelis with some blackmail opportunities.[20] The cooperation was so close that Israel worked with France on the preproduction design of early Mirage jet aircraft, designed to be capable of delivering nuclear bombs.[21] French experts secretly built the Israeli reactor underground at Dimona, in the Negev desert of southern Israel near Beersheba. Hundreds of French engineers and technicians filled Beersheba, the biggest town in the Negev. Many of the same contractors who built Marcoule were involved. SON (a French firm) built the plutonium separation plants in both France and Israel. The ground was broken for the EL-102 reactor (as it was known to France) in early 1958. Israel used many subterfuges to conceal activity at Dimona. It called the plant a manganese plant, and rarely, a textile plant. The United States by the end of 1958 had taken pictures of the project from U-2 spy planes, and identified the site as a probable reactor complex. The concentration of Frenchmen was also impossible to hide from ground observers. In 1960, before the reactor was operating, France, now under the leadership of de Gaulle, reconsidered and decided to suspend the project. After several months of negotiation, they reached an agreement in November that allowed the reactor to proceed if Israel promised not to make nuclear weapons and to announce the project to the world. Work on the plutonium reprocessing plant halted. On 2 December 1960, before Israel could make announcements, the U.S. State Department issued a statement that Israel had a secret nuclear installation. By 16 December, this became public knowledge with its appearance in the New York Times. On 21 December, Ben-Gurion announced that Israel was building a 24-megawatt reactor “for peaceful purposes.”[22] Over the next year, relations between the U.S. and Israel became strained over the Dimona reactor. The U.S. accepted Israel's assertions at face value publicly, but exerted pressure privately. Although Israel allowed a cursory inspection by well known American physicists Eugene Wigner and I. I. Rabi, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion consistently refused to allow regular international inspections. The final resolution between the U.S. and Israel was a commitment from Israel to use the facility for peaceful purposes, and to admit an U.S. inspection team twice a year. These inspections began in 1962 and continued until 1969. Inspectors saw only the above ground part of the buildings, not the many levels underground and the visit frequency was never more than once a year. The above ground areas had simulated control rooms, and access to the underground areas was kept hidden while the inspectors were present. Elevators leading to the secret underground plutonium reprocessing plant were actually bricked over.[23] Much of the information on these inspections and the political maneuvering around it has just been declassified.[24] One interpretation of Ben-Gurion's “peaceful purposes” pledge given to America is that he interpreted it to mean that nuclear weapon development was not excluded if used strictly for defensive, and not offensive purposes. Israel's security position in the late fifties and early sixties was far more precarious than now. After three wars, with a robust domestic arms industry and a reliable defense supply line from the U.S., Israel felt much more secure. During the fifties and early sixties a number of attempts by Israel to obtain security guarantees from the U.S. to place Israel under the U.S. nuclear umbrella like NATO or Japan, were unsuccessful. If the U.S. had conducted a forward-looking policy to restrain Israel's proliferation, along with a sure defense agreement, we could have prevented the development of Israel's nuclear arsenal. One common discussion in the literature concerns testing of Israeli nuclear devices. In the early phases, the amount of collaboration between the French and Israeli nuclear weapons design programs made testing unnecessary. In addition, although their main efforts were with plutonium, the Israelis may have amassed enough uranium for gun-assembled type bombs which, like the Hiroshima bomb, require no testing. One expert postulated, based on unnamed sources, that the French nuclear test in 1960 made two nuclear powers not one—such was the depth of collaboration.]25] There were several Israeli observers at the French nuclear tests and the Israelis had “unrestricted access to French nuclear test explosion data.”[26] Israel also supplied essential technology and hardware.[27] The French reportedly shipped reprocessed plutonium back to Israel as part of their repayment for Israeli scientific help. However, this constant, decade long, French cooperation and support was soon to end and Israel would have to go it alone. III. 1963-1973: Seeing the Project to Completion To act in such a way that the Jews who died in the gas chambers would be the last Jews to die without defending themselves. - Golda Meir[28 ] Israel would soon need its own, independent, capabilities to complete its nuclear program. Only five countries had facilities for uranium enrichment: the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China. The Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation, or NUMEC, in Apollo, Pennsylvania was a small fuel rod fabrication plant. In 1965, the U.S. government accused Dr. Zalman Shapiro, the corporation president, of “losing” 200 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Although investigated by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies and inquiring reporters, no answers were available in what was termed the Apollo Affair.[29] Many remain convinced that the Israelis received 200 pounds of enriched uranium sometime before 1965.[30] One source links Rafi Eitan, an Israeli Mossad agent and later the handler of spy Jonathan Pollard, with NUMEC.[31] In the 1990s when the NUMEC plant was disassembled, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found over 100 kilograms of plutonium in the structural components of the contaminated plant, casting doubt on 200 pounds going to Israel.[32] The joint venture with France gave Israel several ingredients for nuclear weapons construction: a production reactor, a factory to extract plutonium from the spent fuel, and the design. In 1962, the Dimona reactor went critical; the French resumed work on the underground plutonium reprocessing plant, and completed it in 1964 or 1965. The acquisition of this reactor and related technologies was clearly intended for military purposes from the outset (not “dual-use”), as the reactor has no other function. The security at Dimona (officially the Negev Nuclear Research Center) was particularly stringent. For straying into Dimona's airspace, the Israelis shot down one of their own Mirage fighters during the Six-Day War. The Israelis also shot down a Libyan airliner with 104 passengers, in 1973, which had strayed over the Sinai.[33] There is little doubt that some time in the late sixties Israel became the sixth nation to manufacture nuclear weapons. Other things they needed were extra uranium and extra heavy water to run the reactor at a higher rate. Norway, France, and the United States provided the heavy water and “Operation Plumbat” provided the uranium. After the 1967 war, France stopped supplies of uranium to Israel. These supplies were from former French colonies of Gabon, Niger, and the Central Africa Republic.[34] Israel had small amounts of uranium from Negev phosphate mines and had bought some from Argentina and South Africa, but not in the large quantities supplied by the French. Through a complicated undercover operation, the Israelis obtained uranium oxide, known as yellow cake, held in a stockpile in Antwerp. Using a West German front company and a high seas transfer from one ship to another in the Mediterranean, they obtained 200 tons of yellow cake. The smugglers labeled the 560 sealed oil drums “Plumbat,” which means lead, hence “Operation Plumbat.”[35] The West German government may have been involved directly but remained undercover to avoid antagonizing the Soviets or Arabs.[36] Israeli intelligence information on the Nazi past of some West German officials may have provided the motivation.[37] Norway sold 20 tons of heavy water to Israel in 1959 for use in an experimental power reactor. Norway insisted on the right to inspect the heavy water for 32 years, but did so only once, in April 1961, while it was still in storage barrels at Dimona. Israel simply promised that the heavy water was for peaceful purposes. In addition, quantities much more than what would be required for the peaceful purpose reactors were imported. Norway either colluded or at the least was very slow to ask to inspect as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rules required.[38] Norway and Israel concluded an agreement in 1990 for Israel to sell back 10.5 tons of the heavy water to Norway. Recent calculations reveal that Israel has used two tons and will retain eight tons more.[39] Author Seymour Hersh, writing in the Samson Option says Prime Minister Levi Eshkol delayed starting weapons production even after Dimona was finished.[40] The reactor operated and the plutonium collected, but remained unseparated. The first extraction of plutonium probably occurred in late 1965. By 1966, enough plutonium was on hand to develop a weapon in time for the Six-Day War in 1967. Some type of non-nuclear test, perhaps a zero yield or implosion test, occurred on November 2, 1966. After this time, considerable collaboration between Israel and South Africa developed and continued through the 1970s and 1980s. South Africa became Israel's primary supplier of uranium for Dimona. A Center for Nonproliferation Studies report lists four separate Israel-South Africa “clandestine nuclear deals.” Three concerned yellowcake and one was tritium.[41] Other sources of yellowcake may have included Portugal.[42] Egypt attempted unsuccessfully to obtain nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union both before and after the Six-Day War. President Nasser received from the Soviet Union a questionable nuclear guarantee instead and declared that Egypt would develop its own nuclear program.[43 ] His rhetoric of 1965 and 1966 about preventive war and Israeli nuclear weapons coupled with overflights of the Dimona rector contributed to the tensions that led to war. The Egyptian Air Force claims to have first overflown Dimona and recognized the existence of a nuclear reactor in 1965.[44 ] Of the 50 American HAWK antiaircraft missiles in Israeli hands, half ringed Dimona by 1965.[45] Israel considered the Egyptian overflights of May 16, 1967 as possible pre-strike reconnaissance. One source lists such Egyptian overflights, along with United Nations peacekeeper withdrawal and Egyptian troop movements into the Sinai, as one of the three “tripwires” which would drive Israel to war.[46] There was an Egyptian military plan to attack Dimona at the start of any war but Nasser vetoed it.[47] He believed Israel would have the bomb in 1968.[48] Israel assembled two nuclear bombs and ten days later went to war.[49] Nasser's plan, if he had one, may have been to gain and consolidate territorial gains before Israel had a nuclear option.[50] He was two weeks too late. The Israelis aggressively pursued an aircraft delivery system from the United States. President Johnson was less emphatic about nonproliferation than President Kennedy-or perhaps had more pressing concerns, such as Vietnam. He had a long history of both Jewish friends and pressing political contributors coupled with some first hand experience of the Holocaust, having toured concentration camps at the end of World War II.[51] Israel pressed him hard for aircraft (A-4E Skyhawks initially and F-4E Phantoms later) and obtained agreement in 1966 under the condition that the aircraft would not be used to deliver nuclear weapons. The State Department attempted to link the aircraft purchases to continued inspection visits. President Johnson overruled the State Department concerning Dimona inspections.[52] Although denied at the time, America delivered the F-4Es, on September 5, 1969, with nuclear capable hardware intact.[53] The Samson Option states that Moshe Dayan gave the go-ahead for starting weapon production in early 1968, putting the plutonium separation plant into full operation. Israel began producing three to five bombs a year. The book Critical Mass asserts that Israel had two bombs in 1967, and that Prime Minister Eshkol ordered them armed in Israel's first nuclear alert during the Six-Day War.[54] Avner Cohen in his recent book, Israel and the Bomb, agrees that Israel had a deliverable nuclear capability in the 1967 war. He quotes Munya Mardor, leader of Rafael, the Armament Development Authority, and other unnamed sources, that Israel “cobbled together” two deliverable devices.[55] Having the bomb meant articulating, even if secretly, a use doctrine. In addition to the “Samson Option” of last resort, other triggers for nuclear use may have included successful Arab penetration of populated areas, destruction of the Israeli Air Force, massive air strikes or chemical/biological strikes on Israeli cities, and Arab use of nuclear weapons.[56] In 1971, Israel began purchasing krytrons, ultra high-speed electronic switching tubes that are “dual-use," having both industrial and nuclear weapons applications as detonators. In the 1980s, the United States charged an American, Richard Smith (or Smyth), with smuggling 810 krytrons to Israel.[57] He vanished before trial and reportedly lives outside Tel Aviv. The Israelis apologized for the action saying that the krytrons were for medical research.[58] Israel returned 469 of the krytrons but the rest, they declared, had been destroyed in testing conventional weapons. Some believe they went to South Africa.[59] Smyth has also been reported to have been involved in a 1972 smuggling operation to obtain solid rocket fuel binder compounds for the Jericho II missile and guidance component hardware.[60] Observers point to the Jericho missile itself as proof of a nuclear capability as it is not suited to the delivery of conventional munitions.[61] On the afternoon of 6 October 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in a coordinated surprise attack, beginning the Yom Kippur War. Caught with only regular forces on duty, augmented by reservists with a low readiness level, Israeli front lines crumbled. By early afternoon on 7 October, no effective forces were in the southern Golan Heights and Syrian forces had reached the edge of the plateau, overlooking the Jordan River. This crisis brought Israel to its second nuclear alert. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, obviously not at his best at a press briefing, was, according to Time magazine, rattled enough to later tell the prime minister that “this is the end of the third temple,” referring to an impending collapse of the state of Israel. “Temple” was also the code word for nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Golda Meir and her “kitchen cabinet” made the decision on the night of 8 October. The Israelis assembled 13 twenty-kiloton atomic bombs. The number and in fact the entire story was later leaked by the Israelis as a great psychological warfare tool. Although most probably plutonium devices, one source reports they were enriched uranium bombs. The Jericho missiles at Hirbat Zachariah and the nuclear strike F-4s at Tel Nof were armed and prepared for action against Syrian and Egyptian targets. They also targeted Damascus with nuclear capable long-range artillery although it is not certain they had nuclear artillery shells.[62] U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was notified of the alert several hours later on the morning of 9 October. The U.S. decided to open an aerial resupply pipeline to Israel, and Israeli aircraft began picking up supplies that day. Although stockpile depletion remained a concern, the military situation stabilized on October 8th and 9th as Israeli reserves poured into the battle and averted disaster. Well before significant American resupply had reached Israeli forces, the Israelis counterattacked and turned the tide on both fronts. On 11 October, a counterattack on the Golan broke the back of Syria's offensive, and on 15 and 16 October, Israel launched a surprise crossing of the Suez Canal into Africa. Soon the Israelis encircled the Egyptian Third Army and it was faced with annihilation on the east bank of the Suez Canal, with no protective forces remaining between the Israeli Army and Cairo. The first U.S. flights arrived on 14 October.[63] Israeli commandos flew to Fort Benning, Georgia to train with the new American TOW anti-tank missiles and return with a C-130 Hercules aircraft full of them in time for the decisive Golan battle. American commanders in Germany depleted their stocks of missiles, at that time only shared with the British and West Germans, and sent them forward to Israel.[64] Thus started the subtle, opaque use of the Israeli bomb to ensure that the United States kept its pledge to maintain Israel's conventional weapons edge over its foes.[65] There is significant anecdotal evidence that Henry Kissinger told President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, that the reason for the U.S. airlift was that the Israelis were close to “going nuclear.”[66] A similar Soviet pipeline to the Arabs, equally robust, may or may not have included a ship with nuclear weapons on it, detected from nuclear trace emissions and shadowed by the Americans from the Dardanelles. The Israelis believe that the Soviets discovered Israeli nuclear preparations from COSMOS satellite photographs and decided to equalize the odds.[67] The Soviet ship arrived in Alexandria on either 18 or 23 October (sources disagree), and remained, without unloading, until November 1973. The ship may have represented a Soviet guarantee to the Arab combatants to neutralize the Israeli nuclear option.[68] While some others dismiss the story completely, the best-written review article concludes that the answer is “obscure.” Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev threatened, on 24 October, to airlift Soviet airborne troops to reinforce the Egyptians cut off on the eastern side of the Suez Canal and put seven Soviet airborne divisions on alert.[69] Recent evidence indicates that the Soviets sent nuclear missile submarines also.[70] Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine claimed that the two Soviet SCUD brigades deployed in Egypt each had a nuclear warhead. American satellite photos seemed to confirm this. The U.S. passed to Israel images of trucks, of the type used to transport nuclear warheads, parked near the launchers.[71] President Nixon's response was to bring the U.S. to worldwide nuclear alert the next day, whereupon Israel went to nuclear alert a third time.[72] This sudden crisis quickly faded as Prime Minister Meir agreed to a cease-fire, relieving the pressure on the Egyptian Third Army. Shimon Peres had argued for a pre-war nuclear demonstration to deter the Arabs. Arab strategies and war aims in 1967 may have been restricted because of a fear of the Israeli “bomb in the basement,” the undeclared nuclear option. The Egyptians planned to capture an eastern strip next to the Suez Canal and then hold. The Syrians did not aggressively commit more forces to battle or attempt to drive through the 1948 Jordan River border to the Israeli center. Both countries seemed not to violate Israel proper and avoided triggering one of the unstated Israeli reasons to employ nuclear weapons.[73] Others discount any Arab planning based on nuclear capabilities.[74] Peres also credits Dimona with bringing Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem to make peace.[75] This position was seemingly confirmed by Sadat in a private conversation with Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman.[76] At the end of the Yom Kippur War (a nation shaking experience), Israel has her nuclear arsenal fully functional and tested by a deployment. The arsenal, still opaque and unspoken, was no longer a secret, especially to the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. IV. 1974-1999: Bringing the Bomb up the Basement Stairs Never Again! - Reportedly welded on the first Israeli nuclear bomb[77] Shortly after the 1973 war, Israel allegedly fielded considerable nuclear artillery consisting of American 175 mm and 203 mm self-propelled artillery pieces, capable of firing nuclear shells. If true, this shows that Dimona had rapidly solved the problems of designing smaller weapons since the crude 1967 devices. If true, these low yield, tactical nuclear artillery rounds could reach at least 25 miles. The Israeli Defense Force did have three battalions of the 175mm artillery (36 tubes), reportedly with 108 nuclear shells and more for the 203mm tubes. Some sources describe a program to extend the range to 45 miles. They may have offered the South Africans these low yield, miniaturized, shells described as, “the best stuff we got.”[78] By 1976, according to one unclassified source, the Central Intelligence Agency believed that the Israelis were using plutonium from Dimona and had 10 to 20 nuclear weapons available.[79] In 1972, two Israeli scientists, Isaiah Nebenzahl and Menacehm Levin, developed a cheaper, faster uranium enrichment process. It used a laser beam for isotope separation. It could reportedly enrich seven grams of Uranium 235 sixty percent in one day.[80] Sources later reported that Israel was using both centrifuges and lasers to enrich uranium.[81] Questions remained regarding full-scale nuclear weapons tests. Primitive gun assembled type devices need no testing. Researchers can test non-nuclear components of other types separately and use extensive computer simulations. Israel received data from the 1960 French tests, and one source concludes that Israel accessed information from U.S. tests conducted in the 1950s and early 1960s. This may have included both boosted and thermonuclear weapons data.[82] Underground testing in a hollowed out cavern is difficult to detect. A West Germany Army Magazine, Wehrtechnik, in June 1976, claimed that Western reports documented a 1963 underground test in the Negev. Other reports show a test at Al-Naqab, Negev in October 1966.[83] A bright flash in the south Indian Ocean, observed by an American satellite on 22 September 1979, is widely believed to be a South Africa-Israel joint nuclear test. It was, according to some, the third test of a neutron bomb. The first two were hidden in clouds to fool the satellite and the third was an accident—the weather cleared.[84] Experts differ on these possible tests. Several writers report that the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory believed it to have been a nuclear explosion while a presidential panel decided otherwise.[85] President Carter was just entering the Iran hostage nightmare and may have easily decided not to alter 30 years of looking the other way.[86] The explosion was almost certainly an Israeli bomb, tested at the invitation of the South Africans. It was more advanced than the “gun type” bombs developed by the South Africans.[87] One report claims it was a test of a nuclear artillery shell.[88] A 1997 Israeli newspaper quoted South African deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, as confirming it was an Israeli test with South African logistical support.[89] Controversy over possible nuclear testing continues to this day. In June 1998, a Member of the Knesset accused the government of an underground test near Eilat on May 28, 1998. Egyptian “nuclear experts” had made similar charges. The Israeli government hotly denied the claims.[90] Not only were the Israelis interested in American nuclear weapons development data, they were interested in targeting data from U.S. intelligence. Israel discovered that they were on the Soviet target list. American-born Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard obtained satellite-imaging data of the Soviet Union, allowing Israel to target accurately Soviet cities. This showed Israel's intention to use its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent political lever, or retaliatory capability against the Soviet Union itself. Israel also used American satellite imagery to plan the 7 June 1981 attack on the Tammuz-1 reactor at Osiraq, Iraq. This daring attack, carried out by eight F-16s accompanied by six F-15s punched a hole in the concrete reactor dome before the reactor began operation (and just days before an Israeli election). It delivered 15 delay-fused 2000 pound bombs deep into the reactor structure (the 16th bomb hit a nearby hall). The blasts shredded the reactor and blew out the dome foundations, causing it to collapse on the rubble. This was the world's first attack on a nuclear reactor.[91] Since 19 September 1988, Israel has worked on its own satellite recon- naissance system to decrease reliance on U.S. sources. On that day, they launched the Offeq-1 satellite on the Shavit booster, a system closely related to the Jericho-II missile. They launched the satellite to the west away from the Arabs and against the earth's rotation, requiring even more thrust. The Jericho-II missile is capable of sending a one ton nuclear payload 5,000 kilometers. Offeq-2 went up on 3 April 1990. The launch of the Offeq-3 failed on its first attempt on 15 September 1994, but was successful 5 April 1995.[92] Mordechai Vanunu provided the best look at the Israeli nuclear arsenal in 1985 complete with photographs.[93] A technician from Dimona who lost his job, Vanunu secretly took photographs, immigrated to Australia and published some of his material in the London Sunday Times. He was subsequently kidnapped by Israeli agents, tried and imprisoned. His data shows a sophisticated nuclear program, over 200 bombs, with boosted devices, neutron bombs, F-16 deliverable warheads, and Jericho warheads.[94] The boosted weapons shown in the Vanunu photographs show a sophistication that inferred the requirement for testing.[95] He revealed for the first time the underground plutonium separation facility where Israel was producing 40 kilograms annually, several times more than previous estimates. Photographs showed sophisticated designs which scientific experts say enabled the Israelis to build bombs with as little as 4 kilograms of plutonium. These facts have increased the estimates of total Israeli nuclear stockpiles (see Appendix A).[96] In the words of one American, “[the Israelis] can do anything we or the Soviets can do.”[97] Vanunu not only made the technical details of the Israeli program and stockpile public but in his wake, Israeli began veiled official acknowledgement of the potent Israeli nuclear deterrent. They began bringing the bomb up the basement stairs if not out of the basement. Israel went on full-scale nuclear alert again on the first day of Desert Storm, 18 January 1991. Seven SCUD missiles were fired against the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa by Iraq (only two actually hit Tel Aviv and one hit Haifa). This alert lasted for the duration of the war, 43 days. Over the course of the war, Iraq launched around 40 missiles in 17 separate attacks at Israel. There was little loss of life: two killed directly, 11 indirectly, with many structures damaged and life disrupted.[98] Several supposedly landed near Dimona, one of them a close miss.[99] Threats of retaliation by the Shamir government if the Iraqis used chemical warheads were interpreted to mean that Israel intended to launch a nuclear strike if gas attacks occurred. One Israeli commentator recommended that Israel should signal Iraq that “any Iraqi action against Israeli civilian populations, with or without gas, may leave Iraq without Baghdad.”[100] Shortly before the end of the war the Israelis tested a “nuclear capable” missile which prompted the United States into intensifying its SCUD hunting in western Iraq to prevent any Israeli response.[101] The Israeli Air Force set up dummy SCUD sites in the Negev for pilots to practice on—they found it no easy task.[102] American government concessions to Israel for not attacking (in addition to Israeli Patriot missile batteries) were: * Allowing Israel to designate 100 targets inside Iraq for the coalition to destroy, * Satellite downlink to increase warning time on the SCUD attacks (present and future), * “Technical parity with Saudi jet fighters in perpetuity.”[103] All of this validated the nuclear arsenal in the minds of the Israelis. In particular the confirmed capability of Arab states without a border with Israel, the so-called “second tier” states, to reach out and touch Israel with ballistic missiles confirmed Israel's need for a robust first strike capability.][104] Current military contacts between Israel and India, another nuclear power, bring up questions of nuclear cooperation.[105] Pakistani sources have already voiced concerns over a possible joint Israeli-Indian attack on Pakistan's nuclear facilities.[106] A recent Parameters article speculated on Israel's willingness to furnish nuclear capabilities or assistance to certain states, such as Turkey.[107] A retired Israeli Defense Force Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Amnon Shahak, has declared, “all methods are acceptable in withholding nuclear capabilities from an Arab state.”[108] As the Israeli bomb comes out of the basement, open discussion, even in Israel, is occurring on why the Israelis feel they need an arsenal not used in at least two if not three wars. Avner Cohen states: “It [Israel] must be in a position to threaten another Hiroshima to prevent another holocaust.”[109] In July 1998 Shimon Peres was quoted in the Jordan Times as saying, “We have built a nuclear option, not in order to have a Hiroshima, but to have an Oslo,”[110] referring to the peace process. One list of current reasons for an Israeli nuclear capability is: * To deter a large conventional attack, * To deter all levels of unconventional (chemical, biological, nuclear) attacks, * To preempt enemy nuclear attacks, * To support conventional preemption against enemy nuclear assets, * To support conventional preemption against enemy non-nuclear (conventional, chemical, biological) assets, * For nuclear warfighting, * The “Samson Option” (last resort destruction).[111] The most alarming of these is the nuclear warfighting. The Israelis have developed, by several accounts, low yield neutron bombs able to destroy troops with minimal damage to property.[112] In 1990, during the Second Gulf War, an Israeli reserve major general recommended to America that it “use non-contaminating tactical nuclear weapons” against Iraq.[113] Some have speculated that the Israelis will update their nuclear arsenal to “micronukes” and “tinynukes” which would be very useful to attack point targets and other tactical or barrier (mining) uses.[114] These would be very useful for hardened deeply buried command and control facilities and for airfield destruction without exposing Israeli pilots to combat.[115] Authors have made the point that Israeli professional military schools do not teach nuclear tactics and would not use them in the close quarters of Israel. Many Israeli officers have attended American military schools where they learned tactical use in crowded Europe.[116] However, Jane's Intelligence Review has recently reported an Israeli review of nuclear strategy with a shift from tactical nuclear warheads to long range missiles.[117] Israel always has favored the long reach, whether to Argentina for Adolph Eichmann, to Iraq to strike a reactor, Entebbe for hostages, Tunisia to hit the PLO, or by targeting the Soviet Union's cities. An esteemed Israeli military author has speculated that Israel is pursuing an R&D program to provide MIRVs (multiple independent reentry vehicles) on their missiles.[118] The government of Israel recently ordered three German Dolphin Class 800 submarine, to be delivered in late 1999. Israel will then have a second strike capability with nuclear cruise missiles, and this capability could well change the nuclear arms race in the Middle East.[119] Israeli rhetoric on the new submarines labels them “national deterrent” assets. Projected capabilities include a submarine-launched nuclear missile with a 350-kilometer range.[120] Israel has been working on sea launch capability for missiles since the 1960s.[121] The first basing options for the new second-strike force of nuclear missile capable submarines include Oman, an Arab nation with unofficial Israeli relations, located strategically near Iran.[122] A report indicates that the Israel Defense Ministry has formally gone to the government with a request to authorize a retaliatory nuclear strike if Israel was hit with first strike nuclear weapons. This report comes in the wake of a recent Iran Shihab-3 missile test and indications to Israel that Iran is two to three years from a nuclear warhead.[123] Israeli statements stress that Iran's nuclear potential would be problem to all and would require “American leadership, with serious participation of the G-7 . . . .”[124] A recent study highlighted Israel's extreme vulnerability to a first strike and an accompanying vulnerability even to a false alarm.[125] Syria's entire defense against Israel seems to rest on chemical weapons and warheads.[126] One scenario involves Syria making a quick incursion into the Golan and then threatening chemical strikes, perhaps with a new, more lethal (protective-mask-penetrable) Russian nerve gas if Israel resists.[127] Their use would drive Israel to nuclear use. Israeli development of an anti- missile defense, the Arrow, a fully fielded (30-50[128]) Jericho II ballistic missile, and the soon-to-arrive strategic submarine force, seems to have produced a coming change in defense force structure. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, quotes the Israeli Chief of Staff discussing the establishment of a “strategic command to . . . prepare an adequate response to the long term threats. . . ”[129] The 1994 accord with Jordan, allowing limited Israeli military presence in Jordanian skies, could make the flying distance to several potential adversaries considerably shorter.[130] Israel is concerned about Iran's desire to obtain nuclear weapons and become a regional leader, coupled with large numbers of Shiite Moslems in southern Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force commanding general issued a statement saying Israel would “consider an attack” if any country gets “close to achieving a nuclear capability.”[131] The Israelis are obviously considering actions capable of stopping such programs and are buying aircraft such as the F-15I with sufficient operational range. At the first delivery of these 4,000 kilometer range fighters, the Israeli comment was, “the aircraft would help counter a growing nuclear threat.”[132] They consider such regional nation nuclear programs to be a sufficient cause for war. Their record of accomplishment is clear: having hit the early Iraqi nuclear effort, they feel vindicated by Desert Storm. They also feel that only the American and Israeli nuclear weapons kept Iraq's Saddam Hussein from using chemical or biological weapons against Israel.[133] Israel, like Iran, has desires of regional power. The 1956 alliance with France and Britain might have been a first attempt at regional hegemony. Current debate in the Israeli press considers offering Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and perhaps Syria (after a peace agreement) an Israeli nuclear umbrella of protection.[134] A nuclear Iran or Iraq might use its nuclear weapons to protect some states in the region, threaten others, and attempt to control oil prices.[135] Another speculative area concerns Israeli nuclear security and possible misuse. What is the chain of decision and control of Israel's weapons? How susceptible are they to misuse or theft? With no open, frank, public debate on nuclear issues, there has accordingly been no debate or information on existing safeguards. This has led to accusations of “monolithic views and sinister intentions.”[1360] Would a right wing military government decide to employ nuclear weapons recklessly? Ariel Sharon, an outspoken proponent of “Greater Israel” was quoted as saying, “Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches.”[137] Could the Gush Emunim, a right wing religious organization, or others, hijack a nuclear device to “liberate” the Temple Mount for the building of the third temple? Chances are small but could increase as radicals decry the peace process.[138] A 1997 article reviewing the Israeli Defense Force repeatedly stressed the possibilities of, and the need to guard against, a religious, right wing military coup, especially as the proportion of religious in the military increases.[139 ] Israel is a nation with a state religion, but its top leaders are not religious Jews. The intricacies of Jewish religious politics and rabbinical law do affect their politics and decision processes. In Jewish law, there are two types of war, one obligatory and mandatory (milkhemet mitzvah) and the one authorized but optional (milkhemet reshut).[140] The labeling of Prime Minister Begin's “Peace for Galilee” operation as a milchemet brera (“war of choice”) was one of the factors causing it to lose support.[141] Interpretation of Jewish law concerning nuclear weapons does not permit their use for mutual assured destruction. However, it does allow possession and threatening their use, even if actual use is not justifiable under the law. Interpretations of the law allow tactical use on the battlefield, but only after warning the enemy and attempting to make peace. How much these intricacies affect Israeli nuclear strategy decisions is unknown.[142] The secret nature of the Israeli nuclear program has hidden the increasing problems of the aging Dimona reactor and adverse worker health effects. Information is only now public as former workers sue the government. This issue is now linked to continued tritium production for the boosted anti-tank and anti-missile nuclear warheads that Israeli continues to need. Israel is attempting to obtain a new, more efficient, tritium production technology developed in India.[143] One other purpose of Israeli nuclear weapons, not often stated, but obvious, is their “use” on the United States. America does not want Israel's nuclear profile raised.[144] They have been used in the past to ensure America does not desert Israel under increased Arab, or oil embargo, pressure and have forced the United States to support Israeli diplomatically against the Soviet Union. Israel used their existence to guarantee a continuing supply of American conventional weapons, a policy likely to continue.[145] Regardless of the true types and numbers (see Appendix A) of Israeli nuclear weapons, they have developed a sophisticated system, by myriad methods, and are a nuclear power to be reckoned with. Their nuclear ambiguity has served their purposes well but Israel is entering a different phase of visibility even as their nuclear capability is entering a new phase. This new visibility may not be in America's interest.[146] Many are predicting the Israeli nuclear arsenal will become less useful “out of the basement” and possibly spur a regional arms race. If so, Israel has a 5-10 year lead time at present before mutual assured destruction, Middle East style, will set in. Would regional mutual second strike capability, easier to acquire than superpower mutual second strike capability, result in regional stability? Some think so.[147] Current Israeli President Ezer Weizman has stated “the nuclear issue is gaining momentum [and the] next war will not be conventional.[148] Appendix A Estimates of the Israeli Nuclear Arsenal Notes 1. Hersh, Seymour M., The Samson Option. Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy (New York: Random House, 1991), 223. 2. Aronson, Slomo and Brosh, Oded, The Politics and Strategy of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East, the Opacity Theory, and Reality, 1960-1991-An Israeli Perspective (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1992), 20. 3. Karsh, Efraim, Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security (London, England: Frank Cass, 1996), 82. 4. Cohen, Avner, Israel and the Bomb (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 16. 5. Cordesman, Anthony, Perilous Prospects: The Peace Process and the Arab-Israeli Military Balance (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1996), 118. 6. Pry, Peter, Israel's Nuclear Arsenal (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1984), 5-6. 7. Quoted in Weissman, Steve and Krosney, Herbert. The Islamic Bomb: The Nuclear Threat to Israel and the Middle East. (New York, New York: Times Books, 1981), 105. 8. “Former Official Says France Helped Build Israel's Dimona Complex.” Nucleonics Week October 16, 1986, 6. 9. Milhollin, Gary, “Heavy Water Cheaters.” Foreign Policy (1987-88): 101-102. 10. Cordesman, 1991, 127. 11. Federation of American Scientists, “Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program.” 10 December 1997, n.p. On-line. Internet, 27 October 1998. Available from http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Israel/Isrhist.html. 12. Nashif, Taysir N., Nuclear Weapons in Israel (New Delhi: S. B. Nangia Books, 1996), 3. 13. Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, 48-49. 14. Bennett, Jeremy, The Suez Crisis. BBC Video. n.d. Videocassette and Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi. Every Spy a Prince. The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990), 63-69. 15. Weissman and Krosney, 112. 16. “Revealed: The Secrets of Israel's Nuclear Arsenal” (London) Sunday Times No. 8,461, 5 October 1986, 1, 4-5. 17. Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, 57-59. 18. Peres, Shimon, Battling for Peace. A Memoir (New York, New York: Random House, 1995), 122. 19. Pry, 10. 20. Loftus, John and Aarons, Mark, The Secret War Against the Jews. How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People (New York, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1994), 287-303. 21. Green, Stephen, Taking Sides. America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1984), 152. 22. Cohen, Avner, “Most Favored Nation.” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 51, no. 1 (January-February 1995): 44-53. 23. Hersh, The Samson Option, 196. 24. See Cohen, Avner, “Israel's Nuclear History: The Untold Kennedy-Eshkol Dimona Correspondence.” Journal of Israeli History, 1995 16, no. 2, 159-194 and Cohen, Avner, Comp. “Recently Declassified 1963 Correspondence between President Kennedy and Prime Ministers Ben-Gurion and Eshkol.” Journal of Israeli History, 1995 16, no. 2, 195-207. Much of the documentation has been posted to http:\\www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/israel. 25. Weissman and Krosney, op. cit.,114-117 26. Cohen, op. cit., Israel and the Bomb, 82-83. 27. Spector, Leonard S., The Undeclared Bomb (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishers, 1988), 387 (n.22). 28. Quoted in Stevens, Elizabeth. “Israel's Nuclear Weapons—A Case Study.” 14 pages. On line. Internet, 23 October 1998. Available from http://infomanage.com/nonproliferation/najournal/israelinucs.html. 29. Green, Taking Sides, 148-179 and Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi, 1990, 197-198. 30. Weissman and Krosney, 119-124. 31. Black, Ian and Morris, Benny, Israel's Secret Wars. A history of Israel's Intelligence Services (New York, New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991), 418-419. 32. Hersh, 257. 33. Green, Stephen, Living by the Sword: America and Israel in the Middle East, 1968-1987 (London: Faber, 1988), 63-80. 34. Cordesman, 1991, 120. 35. Weissman and Krosney, 124-128 and Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi, 1990, 198-199. 36. Spector, The Undeclared Bomb, 395(n. 57).98-199 37. Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi, 1990, 58. 38. Milhollin, 100-119. 39. Stanghelle, Harold, “Israel to sell back 10.5 tons.” Arbeiderbladet, Oslo, Norway, 28 June 1990 in: Center for Nonproliferation Studies, “Nuclear Developments,” 28 June 1990, 34-35; on-line, Internet 22 November 1998, available from http://cns.miis.edu. 40. Hersh, op. cit., 139. 41. Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “Israeli Friends,” ISIS Report, May 1994, 4; on-line, Internet 22 November 1998, available from http://cns.miis.edu. 42. Abecasis, Rachel, “Uranium reportedly offered to China, Israel.” Radio Renascenca, Lisbon, 9 December 1992 quoted in Center for Nonproliferation, “Proliferation Issues,” 23 December, 1992, 25; on-line, Internet 22 November 1998, available from http://cns.miis.edu. 43. Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, op. cit., 231-232 and 256-257. 44. Nordeen, Lon O., Nicolle, David, Phoenix over the Nile (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1996), 192-193. 45. O'Balance, Edgar, The Third Arab-Israeli War (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), 54. 46. Brecher, Michael, Decision in Crisis. Israel, 1967 and 1973 (Berkley, California: University of California Press, 1980), 104, 230-231. 47. Cohen, Avner. “Cairo, Dimona, and the June 1967 War.” Middle East Journal 50, no. 2 (Spring 1996), 190-210. 48. Creveld, Martin van. The Sword and the Olive. A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force (New York, New York: Public Affairs, 1998), 174. 49. Burrows, William E. and Windrem, Robert, Critical Mass. The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 282-283. 50. Aronson, Shlomo, Israel's Nuclear Options, ACIS Working Paper No. 7. Los Angeles, California: University of California Center for Arms Control and International Security, 1977, 3, and Sorenson, David S., “Middle East Regional Studies-AY99,” Air War College: Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, 542. 51. Hersh, op. cit., 126-128. 52. Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, op. cit., 210-213. 53. Spector, Leonard S., “Foreign-Supplied Combat Aircraft: Will They Drop the Third World Bomb?” Journal of International Affairs 40, no. 1(1986): 145 (n. 5) and Green, Living by the Sword, op. cit., 18-19. 54. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 280. 55. Cohen, op. cit., Israel and the Bomb, 237. 56. Ibid., 273-274. 57. Milhollin, op. cit., 103-104. 58. Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi, Friend in Deed: Inside the U.S.-Israel Alliance (New York New York: Hyperion, 1994), 299. 59. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 464-465 and Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi, op. cit., 1990, 304-305. 60. Spector, The Undeclared Bomb, op. cit., 179. 61. Dowty, Alan. “Israel and Nuclear Weapons.” Midstream 22, no. 7 (November 1976), 8-9. 62. Hersh, op. cit., 217, 222-226, and Weissman and Krosney, op. cit., 107. 63. Green, op. cit., Living by the Sword, 90-99. 64. Loftus and Aarons, op. cit., 316-317. 65 Smith, Gerard C. and Cobban, Helena. “A Blind Eye To Nuclear Proliferation.” Foreign Affairs 68, no. 3(1989), 53-70. 66. Hersh, op. cit., 230-231. 67. O'Balance, Edgar, No Victor, No Vanquished. The Yom Kippur War (San Rafael, California: Presido Press, 1978), 175. 68. Ibid., 234-235 and Aronson, S, op. cit., 15-18. 69. Spector, The Undeclared Bomb, op. cit., 396 (n. 62); Garthoff, Raymond L., Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute, 1994), 426, n76 and Bandmann, Yona and Cordova, Yishai. “The Soviet Nuclear Threat Towards the Close of the Yom Kippur War.” Jerusalem Journal of International Relations 1980 5, no. 1, 107-9. 70. Cherkashin, Nikolai, “On Moscow's Orders.” Russian Life, 39, no. 10 (October 1996), 13-15. 71. Brownlow, Cecil. “Soviets poise three-front global drive. Nuclear weapons in Egypt, artillery buildup at Guantanamo, Communist concentrations in Vietnam aimed at political gains.” Aviation Week and Space Technology 99, no. 19 (5 November 1973), 12-14; Holt, Robert. “Soviet Power Play.” Aviation Week and Space Technology 99, no. 19 (5 November 1973), 7 and Gur-Arieh, Danny, “A non-Conventional Look at Israel During '73 War.” IsraelWire Tuesday, October 6, 1998 17, 23; on-line, Internet 20 November 1998, available from http://www.israelwire.com/new/981006/9810068.html. 72. Hersh, op. cit., 321-235. 73. Creveld, 1998, op. cit., 220-221. 74. Evron, Yair, Israel's Nuclear Dilemma (Ithaca, New York: Cornell Publishing, 1994), 62-74. 75. Cohen, Avner, “Peres: Peacemaker, Nuclear Pioneer.” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 52, no. 3 (May/June 1996), 16-17 and Aronson, S, op. cit., 11-12. 76. Karsh, op. cit., 86. 77. Quoted in Hersh, op. cit., 180 and Stevens, op. cit., 1-14. 78. Hersh, op. cit., 216, 276 and Kaku, Michio. “Contingency Plans: Nuclear Weapons after the Cold War.” In Altered States: A Reader in the New World Order, Bennis, Phyllis and Moushabeck, Michel, Eds. (New York, New York: 1993), 66. 79. Weissman and Krosney, op. cit., 109. 80. Gillette, Robert, “Uranium Enrichment: Rumors of Israeli Progress with Lasers.” Science 183, no. 4130 (22 March 1974), 1172-1174. 81. Barnaby, Frank, The Invisible Bomb: The Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East (London: I. B. Tauris, 1988), 25. 82. “Israel: The Covert Connection.” Frontline, PBS Network, May 16, 1989, quoted in Spector, Leonard S., and McDonough, Mark G., with Medeiros, Evan S., Tracking Nuclear Proliferation. A Guide in Maps and Charts, 1995 (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1995). 83. Nashif, Taysir N., Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East: Dimensions and Responsibilities (Princeton, New Jersey: Kingston Press, 1984), 22-23. 84. Hersh, op. cit., 216. 85. Barnaby, Frank, “Capping Israel's Nuclear Volcano,” Between War and Peace. Dilemmas of Israeli Security, edited by Efraim Karsh (London, England: Frank Cass, 1996), 98. 86. Hersh, op. cit., 271-275. 87. Nashif, op. cit., 32. 88. Gaffney, Mark, Dimona: The Third Temple? The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation (Brattleboro, Vermont: Amana Books, 1989), 100-101. 89. Pedatzur, Re'uven, “South African Statement On Nuclear Test Said to Serve Israel,” Ha'aretz, 29 July 1997. On line: Internet, 22 November 1998 and Kelley, Robert. “The Iraqi and South African Nuclear W”ôNuclear Abstracts," 1 March 1996, or on-line, Internet, 22 November 1998, both available from http://cns.miis.edu. 90. “Was there a Nuclear Test near Eilat?” IsraelWire, 16 June 1998, or on line Internet, 22 November, 1998, available from http://www.israelwire.com and “Deputy Defense Minister Denies Israeli Nuclear Testing.” Israeli Wire, June 18, 1998, or on-line. Internet, 13 October 1998, available from http://www.israelwire.com/New/980618/9806184.html. 91. McKinnon, Dan. Bullseye One Reactor. The Story of Israel's Bold Surprise Air Attack That Destroyed Iraqi's Nuclear Bomb Facility (Shrewsbury, England: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 1987). 92. “Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Report on the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Moscow, 1993.” Journal of Palestine Studies XXII, no. 4 (Summer 1993): 135-140; Creveld, Martin van, Nuclear Proliferation and the Future Of Conflict (New York: The Free Press, 1993), 105; and Clark, Philip. “ôThird successful Israeli satellite launch.” Jane's Intelligence Review 7, no. 6 (June 1995), 25-26. 93. Sunday Times, London, op. cit., 1,4-5. 94. Toscano, Louis, Triple Cross: Israel, the Atomic Bomb and the Man Who Spilled the Secrets (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1990). 95. Green, Living by the Sword, op. cit., 134. 96. Spector, The Undeclared Bomb, op. cit., 165-166. 97. Hersh, op. cit., 291. 98. Levran, Aharon, Israeli Strategy after Desert Storm: Lessons from the Second Gulf War (London: Frank Cass, 1997), 1-10. 99. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 278. 100. Cohen, Avner and Miller, Marvin, Nuclear Shadows in the Middle East: Prospects for Arms Control in the Wake of the Gulf Crisis (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990), 10. 101. Aronson and Brosh, op. cit., 276. 102. Raviv and Melman, op. cit., 399. 103. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 297n and Creveld, 1998, op. cit., 321-322. 104. Levran, op. cit., 8-10. 105. Ahmar, Moonis, “Pakistan and Israel: Distant Adversaries or Neighbors?” Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, 1996, 20, no.1, 43-44. 106. “Nuclear proliferation didn't start in 1998 . . .and not in Pakistan nor with Islam,” Middle East Realities, or on-line, Internet, 21 September 1998, available from http://www.middleeast.org/1998_06_28.htm. 107. Garrity, Patrick J. “The Next Nuclear Questions.” Parameters, XXV, no. 4 (Winter 1995-96), 92-111. 108. Cohen, Eliezer. Israel's best defense: the First Full Story of the Israeli Air Force, (New York, New York: Random House, 1993), 495. 109. Cohen and Miller, op. cit., 18. 110. “Before Meeting with King, Peres Claims Israel's Nuclear Arsenal was built for Peace,” Jordan Times, July 14, 1998. Quoted in Sorenson, op. cit., 542. 111. Beres, Louis Rene, “Israel's Bomb in the Basement: A revisiting of `Deliberate Ambiguity' vs. `Disclosure', Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security, edited by Efraim Harsh (London, England: Frank Cass, 1996), 113-133. 112. Hersh, op. cit., 319. 113. Amos, Deborah, Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 105. 114. Dowler, Thomas W. and Howard II, Joseph H., “Countering the threat of the well-armed tyrant: A modest proposal for small nuclear weapons,” Strategic Review, XIX, no. 4 (Fall 1991), 34-40. 115. Beres, Louis Rene, “Israel's bomb in the basement: A revisiting of `Deliberate Ambiguity' vs. `Disclosure.' ” In Karsh, Efraim, op. cit., Editor, Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security (London, England: Frank Cass, 1996), 116. 116. Cordesman, op. cit., 1996, 265. 117. Hough, Harold, “Israel reviews its nuclear deterrent,” Jane's Intelligence Review 10, no.11 (November 1998), 11-13. 118. Creveld, op. cit., 1993, 105. 119. Burrows, and Windrem, op. cit., 311-312 and “Israel begins test of nuclear missile submarines,” The Irish Times, July 2, 1998, or on-line, Internet, 24 December 1998, available from http://www.irish-times.com/irish-times/paper/1998/0702/wor13.html. 120. Melman, Yossi, “Swimming with the Dolphins,” Ha'aretz, Tuesday, June 9, 1998, and “Report: Israel to get Subs with Nuclear Strike Capability,” Jerusalem Post, I July 3, 1998, 3 and Sorenson, op. cit., 543. 121. Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi, op. cit., 1990, 344-345, 422-423. 122. Shahak, Israel, Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies (London: Pluto Press, 1997), 72-73. 123. Davis, Douglas, “Defense Officials Said Urging Nuclear Second-Strike Capability,” Jerusalem Post, 6 August 1998, 3; or on-line, Internet, 22 November 1998, available from http://cns.miis.edu. 124. Inbar, Efraim, “Israel's security in a new international environment,” in Karsh, Efraim, Editor, Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security (London, England: Frank Cass, 1996), 41. 125. Hough, Harold, “Could Israel's Nuclear Assets Survive a First Strike?” Jane's Intelligence Review, September 1997, 407-410. 126. Terrill, W. Andrew, “The Chemical Warfare Legacy of the Yemen War.” Comparative Strategy, 10 (1991), 109-119. 127. Boyne, Sean, “Across the Great Divide. Will Assad go for the Golan?” Jane's Intelligence Review, 10, no. 4 (April 1998), 21-24 and Cordesman, 1996, op. cit., 254. 128. Cordesman, op. cit., 1996, 243. 129, Harel, Amos and Barzilai, Amnon, “Mordechai says Arrow alone cannot protect against missiles,” Ha'aretz, 13 January 1999, or on-line, Internet, 13 January 1999, available from http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/htmls/3_9.htm 130. Shahak, op. cit., 78-79. 131. Chubin, Shahram, “Does Iran Want Nuclear Weapons?” Survival 37, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 91-93. 132. O'Sullivan, Arich, “New F-15I Warplanes Expand Israel's Reach,” The Jerusalem Post, 19 January 1997, or on-line, Internet 22 November 1998, available from http://www.jpost.co.il. 133. Karsh, op. cit., 9. 134. Shahak, op. cit., 4-5. 135. Garrity, op. cit., 92-111. 136. Dowty, op. cit., 8. 137. Gaffney, op. cit., 165. 138. Ibid., 37-38 and Friedman, Robert I. Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement (New York, New York: Random House, 1992), 132-52. 139. Blanche, Ed, “Is the Myth Fading for the Israeli Army? — Part 1.” Jane's Intelligence Review, 8, no. 12 (December 1996), 547-550 and Blanche, Ed. “Is the myth fading for the Israeli Army? — Part 2,” Jane's Intelligence Review 9, no. 1 (January 1997), 25-28. 140. Cohen, Stuart A., The Scroll or the Sword? Dilemmas of Religion and Military Service in Israel (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997), 11-24. 141. Creveld, op. cit., 1998, 298. 142. Broyde, Michael J., “Fighting the War and the Peace: Battlefield Ethics, Peace Talks, Treaties, and Pacifism in the Jewish Tradition,” or on-line, Internet, 20 November 1998, available from http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/war3.html. 143. Hough, Harold, op. cit., 1998, 11-12 and Berger, Julian, “Court Fury At Israeli Reactor.” Guardian, 13 October 1997, in Center for Nonproliferation, “Nuclear Abstracts,” 13 October 1997, or on-line, Internet, 22 November 1998, available from http://cns.miis.edu. 144. Creveld, op. cit., 1998, 252. 145. Valry, Nicholas, “Israel's Silent Gamble with the Bomb,” New Scientist (12 December 1974), 807-09. 146. Harden, Major James D., Israeli Nuclear Weapons and War in the Middle East, Master's Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, December 1997. 147. Dowdy, op. cit., 20. 148. Aronson, Geoffrey, “Hidden Agenda: US-Israeli Relations and the Nuclear Question,” Middle East Journal, 46, no. 4 (Autumn 1992), 619-630. 149. Data from Time, 12 April 1976, quoted in Weissman and Krosney, op. cit., 107. 150. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 280 and Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, op. cit., 273-274. 151. Tahtinen, Dale R., The Arab-Israel Military Balance Today (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1973), 34. 152. “How Israel Got the Bomb.” Time, 12 April 1976, 39. 153. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 302. 154. Kaku, op. cit., 66 and Hersh, op. cit., 216. 155. Valéry, op. cit., 807-09. 156. Data from CIA, quoted in Weissman and Krosney, op. cit., 109. 157. Ottenberg, Michael, “Estimating Israel's Nuclear Capabilities,” Command, 30 (October 1994), 6-8. 158. Pry, op. cit., 75. 159. Ibid., 111. 160. Data from NBC Nightly News, quoted in Milhollin, op. cit., 104 and Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 308. 161. Data from Vanunu quoted in Milhollin, op. cit., 104. 162. Harkavy, Robert E. “After the Gulf War: The Future of the Israeli Nuclear Strategy,” The Washington Quarterly (Summer 1991), 164. 163. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 308. 164. Albright, David, Berkhout, Frans and Walker, William, Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium 1996. World Inventories, Capabilities, and Policies (New York: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute And Oxford University Press, 1997), 262-263. 165. Hough, Harold, “Israel's Nuclear Infrastructure,” Jane's Intelligence Review 6, no. 11 (November 1994), 508. 166. Ibid., 262-263. 167. Spector, and McDonough, with Medeiros, op. cit., 135. 168. Burrows and Windrem, op. cit., 283-284. 169. Cordesman, op. cit., 1996, 234. 170. Ibid., 234. 171. Ibid., 230, 243. 172. Brower, Kenneth S., “A Propensity for Conflict: Potential Scenarios and Outcomes of War in the Middle East,” Jane's Intelligence Review, Special Report no. 14, (February 1997), 14-15. 173. Albright, Berkhout, and Walker, op. cit., 262-263. USAF Counterproliferation Center The USAF Counterproliferation Center was established in 1998 to provide education and research to the present and future leaders of the USAF, and thereby help them better prepare to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Barry R. Schneider, Director USAF Counterproliferation Center 325 Chennault Circle Maxwell AFB AL 36112-6427k (334) 953-7538 (DSN (493-7538) Email: Barry.Schneider@maxwell,af.mil Open postHeader Div 3. Eric T. New York, NY March 24th, 2010 12:06 am Close postHeader Div Open userReview Div A bit more on the subject of the Armistice Line (which became the Green Line). From the agreement with Jordan:""... no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims, and positions of either Party hereto in the peaceful settlement of the Palestine questions, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations"and"The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto."So if the parties to the Armitice agree it wasn't a border -- and perhaps this was the only thing they ever agreed on -- then it certainly isn't a winning argument to claims that this was an internationally recognized border. http://www.fossilscience.com/research/Archaeologist_discovers_Jerusalem_city_wall_from_tenth_century_B.C.E..asp Archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall from tenth century B.C.E. (2/23/2010) Tags: jerusalem Dr. Eilat Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist, points to the tenth century B.C.E. excavations that were uncovered under her direction in the Ophel area adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem. - (Hebrew University photo by Sasson Tiram) Dr. Eilat Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist, points to the tenth century B.C.E. excavations that were uncovered under her direction in the Ophel area adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem. - (Hebrew University photo by Sasson Tiram) A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon -- has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount. Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley. The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in Biblical Archeology. The funding supports both completion of the archaeological excavations and processing and analysis of the finds as well as conservation work and preparation of the site for viewing by the public within the Ophel Archaeological Park and the national park around the walls of Jerusalem. The excavations were carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Company for the Development of East Jerusalem. Archaeology students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as volunteer students from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and hired workers all participated in the excavation work. "The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering", Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley. "A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.," said Mazar "This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon's building in Jerusalem," she added. "The Bible tells us that Solomon built -- with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders -- the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David." Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to "until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about." The six-meter-high gatehouse of the uncovered city wall complex is built in a style typical of those from the period of the First Temple like Megiddo, Beersheva and Ashdod. It has symmetrical plan of four identical small rooms, two on each side of the main passageway. Also there was a large, adjacent tower, covering an area of 24 by 18 meters, which was intended to serve as a watchtower to protect entry to the city. The tower is located today under the nearby road and still needs to be excavated. Nineteenth century British surveyor Charles Warren, who conducted an underground survey in the area, first described the outline of the large tower in 1867 but without attributing it to the era of Solomon. "Part of the city wall complex served as commercial space and part as security stations," explained Mazar. Within the courtyard of the large tower there were widespread public activities, she said. It served as a public meeting ground, as a place for conducting commercial activities and cult activities, and as a location for economic and legal activities. Pottery shards discovered within the fill of the lowest floor of the royal building near the gatehouse also testify to the dating of the complex to the 10th century B.C.E. Found on the floor were remnants of large storage jars, 1.15 meters in height, that survived destruction by fire and that were found in rooms that apparently served as storage areas on the ground floor of the building. On one of the jars there is a partial inscription in ancient Hebrew indicating it belonged to a high-level government official. "The jars that were found are the largest ever found in Jerusalem," said Mazar, adding that "the inscription that was found on one of them shows that it belonged to a government official, apparently the person responsible for overseeing the provision of baked goods to the royal court." In addition to the pottery shards, cult figurines were also found in the area, as were seal impressions on jar handles with the word "to the king," testifying to their usage within the monarchy. Also found were seal impressions (bullae) with Hebrew names, also indicating the royal nature of the structure. Most of the tiny fragments uncovered came from intricate wet sifting done with the help of the salvaging Temple Mount Sifting Project, directed by Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Zachi Zweig, under the auspice of the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ir David Foundation. Between the large tower at the city gate and the royal building the archaeologists uncovered a section of the corner tower that is eight meters in length and six meters high. The tower was built of carved stones of unusual beauty. East of the royal building, another section of the city wall that extends for some 35 meters also was revealed. This section is five meters high, and is part of the wall that continues to the northeast and once enclosed the Ophel area. Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem November 24, 1996 Piles of Storied Jewish Books Are Languishing in Lithuania By MICHAEL SPECTER Tens of thousands of rare Hebrew and Yiddish texts lie in dusty heaps in a Roman Catholic church here, desiccated and forgotten. Many date from the 17th and 18th centuries, when this city became an unrivaled center of Jewish intellectual and spiritual innovation. The books, forming what experts regard as one of the largest such collections in the world, were hidden first from the Nazis and then concealed for years from the Soviets under stacks of farm statistics. They are the property of the Lithuanian National Library, whose director says he considers them a ''treasure beyond value.'' But scholars have not been given regular access to the church and even the two women struggling to catalogue the books say they have no idea how many of them are left to examine. ''This is our legacy,'' said Larissa Lampert, who teaches Biblical Hebrew and Rabbinic Literature at Vilnius University and who, along with a Holocaust survivor, Fira Bramson, has been sorting the books in an unheated and unlighted room. ''This is what remains of the culture of the Jews of Lithuania. We must save it to remind people of what once flourished here.'' But finding a way to do that -- and a place -- has proven nearly impossible. Only about 4,000 Jews are left in Lithuania, mostly elderly, and community leaders say these books are their last powerful link to a heritage that the Nazis and then the Soviets tried hard to obliterate. But Jewish scholars say the books, collected from the most important and renowned yeshivas and libraries in Eastern Europe, no longer belong in Lithuania. They consider their presence here -- where the Nazis killed 240,000 Jews and came closer than in any other country to their goal of wiping them out -- to be useless and absurd. ''These books are priceless and they belong to the Jewish people,'' said Allan Nadler, director of research at Yivo, the institute devoted to Jewish and Yiddish culture and scholarship that was based in Vilnius from 1925 and moved to New York after World War II. Mr. Nadler is one of the few scholars to have spent more than an hour or so searching the stacks. ''There is nothing like this collection in the world,'' he said. ''And they are of virtually no use to anyone living in Lithuania today. I don't care if they come to New York or to Jerusalem or somewhere else where the Jewish people can have access to them. But for them to sit in a church in Lithuania is an outrage.'' But many of those Jews who remain in Vilnius say that to strip this land of that legacy of intellect and discovery would be to defeat 600 years of a culture in a place once so vital and central to Jewish thought that it was called the Jerusalem of the North. It is hard to exaggerate the importance of Vilna, as it is called in Yiddish, to the development of Jewish culture over the last 300 years. At the turn of this century there were more than 100 synagogues here, and nearly 40 percent of the population was Jewish. Six daily Yiddish papers were published. The Bund, the Jewish labor guild, was founded here and so was the Vilna Troupe, perhaps the Yiddish-speaking world's greatest repertory theater. The Strashun Library, one of the modern Jewish world's landmark centers of learning, was also in Vilnius. Now, books written more than 200 years ago by Elijah ben Solomon Zalmen, known as the Gaon of Vilna, sit next to aging radiators unrestored and in bone-dry conditions. Elijah ben Solomon Zalmen, whose famous nickname refers to the cobblestone street he lived on, is often regarded as the most rigorous force behind the Jewish Enlightenment, urging Jews to study grammar, astronomy and other disciplines as well as the Torah. Damaged Hebrew translations of Aristotle from the 17th century are among the books the librarians have discovered. ''We have no idea how much more of it is in there,'' Miss Lampert said. ''It is impossible to get everything quickly with the resources we have available.'' The library's director, Vladis Bulavas, refused to let a reporter into the church because he said there was no ''scholarly purpose'' in seeking to examine the books. But Miss Lampert said that among the books locked up there were thousands of first editions published here by the Romm Press, which by the 19th century had become the largest publishing house of Hebrew and Yiddish texts in the world. There are also what she described as ''masses'' of books taken from the Yeshiva in the western Lithuanian town of Telshay, a place that scholars rank among the most important of all Jewish educational institutions. ''Is there some simple way to resolve this?'' said Mikhail Jakobas, director of one of the two Hebrew schools remaining in the nation. ''No, of course not. But I came from Telshay. And I wonder now, did my grandfather write in the margins of those books? Are they what turned my father into a great and learned man?'' ''I can't say that this will ever be a center of Jewish learning again,'' he said. ''I know that our renaissance here is in the past. But books are our love and our obligation. And as much as I admit that more people would use them someplace else, I cannot hope to see them leave. Too much has left here already.'' Mr. Jakobas, who said he never encourages his bright young students to stay in Lithuania if there is a decent chance to live elsewhere, would like to see an international group of scholars meet and decide the fate of the texts. Like many people here, what he would like most is to find money for a library where the books would be treated properly and scholars could use them in a dignified setting. The entire annual budget for the National Library -- $100,000 -- is not enough to keep the lights on in all the rooms through the winter. The Jews of Vilnius today are struggling. Most are here because they are old, or their parents are too sick to move. A greater percentage of Jews left this country after the Soviet Union broke apart than left any of the other republics, including Russia. There are groups, like the Lubavitcher, trying to bring Jewish culture back. But it is not easy. ''I am a practical man,'' said Sholom Ber Krinsky, a Lubavitcher rabbi who has lived in Vilnius for three years, and is working hard at rekindling the community. ''The books are being treated shamefully and I don't believe they will ever be used properly here. They need to be rescued even if that means taken from us.'' The library's director began an interview by insisting that the books could never leave the country. ''They are our national heritage,'' he said. ''They belong to nobody else.'' He then said he would be happy to ''trade'' the books for equally valuable riches stolen by Germany or Russia from Lithuania if such loot could be produced. ''Certainly,'' he said, ''it is worth exploring the question of what could be offered to us.'' This type of talk has angered many of those who believe the books belong in Lithuania. It has also infuriated people who say that the library has no real interest in them. Most of the books were published in Poland, the country Vilnius was in until it was transferred to Lithuania under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. By the next summer the Soviet Union had taken over the country. ''How you interpret property rights in this part of the world is extremely difficult,'' said Michael Stanislawski, a professor who specializes in Jewish history at Columbia University. ''I am not overly optimistic about the prospects for Jewish life in Vilna today. Of course I would prefer that these books be in New York or Jerusalem.'' ''But we have to be careful here,'' he said. ''Jews are in an awkward situation. We constantly protest that they write history in countries like Lithuania that excludes the Jews. Yet we are always trying to take Jewish material away from there.'' Like others who talked about the books, he said it was important to separate the issues of how the materials were being treated with where they ought to end up. ''It is a scandal that they are not open to people and that they lie there uncared for,'' he said, noting that he had not seen the books or tried to. ''But that does not necessarily mean they must be taken out of the country.'' There are now many ways of copying books -- even manuscripts -- and sending those copies abroad or even posting them on the Internet. The Library of Congress, at the strong recommendation of Yivo, sent microfilming equipment to Vilnius two years ago so librarians here could copy 75,000 Yiddish and Hebrew periodicals found in the church. But that project does not include the books. ''Unfortunately these books and the Jews here are one,'' said Mr. Jakobas, director of the Hebrew school. ''Maybe the best thing in the world is for the books to go and for the Jews to go. But if the books go we should not be naive. It means the Jews are gone too.'' Demographic Trend in Israel's Favor by Hillel Fendel Follow Israel news on Twitter and Facebook. The American-Israel Demographic Research Group (AIDRG) shows that the numbers continue to tell a different demographic story than the one that pro-Palestinian elements wish to ensconce in the public consciousness. Yoram Ettinger, head of the group's Israeli research desk, a consultant on American-Israeli relations and a former liaison to Congress in Israel's Washington Embassy, recently presented the latest findings to an audience in Jerusalem. The name of the presentation speaks for itself: "Bursting the Demographic Bubble: From Baseless Demographic Fatalism to Documented Demographic Optimism." A perpetual theme running throughout the presentation is that the PCBS (Palestinian Authority Central Bureau of Statistics) exaggerates the number of Arabs in its territory in a number of ways. The latest census includes some 400,000 overseas residents, adds 200,000 Jerusalem Arabs who are also counted as Israeli-Arabs and ignores some 200,000 emigrants since 1997. The World Bank documents a 32 percent gap between the number of Arab births given by the PCBS and that provided by the PA's Ministry of Health and confirmed by its Ministry of Education. It is with methods such as these, Ettinger says, that the PA is able to jack up its total numbers in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to some 4.3 million Arabs - falsely convincing many to support the need for a Palestinian state - when in fact there are no more than 2.8 million. In addition, the PA takes the "assumed" numbers, adds it to the 1.4 million Israeli-Arabs, and states that the total number of Arabs west of the Jordan River is practically the same as the number of Jews. The AIDRG shows, however, that in fact, a 2-1 majority of Jews has been consistently maintained. The PCBS partially based its numbers and projections on an assumption of mass immigration into Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In 1997, it forecast an immigration of 45,000 each year, beginning in 2001. However, in fact, border crossings data showed not only that Arabs were not moving into Judea and Samaria, but they also were actually moving out - in record numbers. In 2004, 10,000 left; 16,000 in 2005; 25,000 in each of 2006 and 2007; and 28,000 more 2008. Thus, the PCBS included, over the last ten years, an annual increase of 60-70,000 Arabs that actually never occurred. The AIDRG's "Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza: The Million Person Gap" was presented at the January 2006 Herzliya Conference. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies published the Study in February 2006. The original study can be found at . Other important aspects of the latest study: * The Arab fertility rate has declined 20 years faster than projected. In Judea and Samaria, Arab fertility has decreased below 4.5 births per woman. * There has been a 50 percent rise in annual Israeli Jewish births during 1995-2009 (from 80,400 to 121,000), while the number of annual Arab births stabilized (39,000). The gap in births-per-woman between Arabs and Jews has dropped ten-fold, from six in 1969 to 0.6 in 2009. * In Jerusalem, the Arab-Jewish fertility rates have converged at 3.9 births per woman, for the first time since 1948. * Israel has benefited from annual Aliyah (immigration) since 1882 - yet since 1948, Israel’s demographers have projected no Aliyah waves. In sum, Ettinger states, "There is a demographic problem, but it is not lethal. The demographic trend is Jewish. Anyone claiming that Israel must concede geography in order to secure demography is either mistaken or misleading." (IsraelNationalNews.com) June 9, 2010 Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity By NICHOLAS WADE Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East share many genes inherited from the ancestral Jewish population that lived in the Middle East some 3,000 years ago, even though each community also carries genes from other sources — usually the country in which it lives. That is the conclusion of two new genetic surveys, the first to use genome-wide scanning devices to compare many Jewish communities around the world. A major surprise from both surveys is the genetic closeness of the two Jewish communities of Europe, the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. The Ashkenazim thrived in Northern and Eastern Europe until their devastation by the Hitler regime, and now live mostly in the United States and Israel. The Sephardim were exiled from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497 and moved to the Ottoman Empire, North Africa and the Netherlands. The two genome surveys extend earlier studies based just on the Y chromosome, the genetic element carried by all men. They refute the suggestion made last year by the historian Shlomo Sand in his book “The Invention of the Jewish People” that Jews have no common origin but are a miscellany of people in Europe and Central Asia who converted to Judaism at various times. Jewish communities from Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus all have substantial genetic ancestry that traces back to the Levant; Ethiopian Jews and two Judaic communities in India are genetically much closer to their host populations. The surveys provide rich data about genetic ancestry that is of great interest to historians. “I’m constantly impressed by the manner in which the geneticists keep moving ahead with new projects and illuminating what we know of history,” said Lawrence H. Schiffman, a professor of Judaic studies at New York University. One of the surveys was conducted by Gil Atzmon of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Harry Ostrer of New York University and appears in the current American Journal of Human Genetics. The other, led by Doron M. Behar of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa and Richard Villems of the University of Tartu in Estonia, is published in Thursday’s edition of Nature. Dr. Atzmon and Dr. Ostrer have developed a way of timing demographic events from the genetic elements shared by different Jewish communities. Their calculations show that Iraqi and Iranian Jews separated from other Jewish communities about 2,500 years ago. This genetic finding presumably reflects a historical event, the destruction of the First Temple at Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. and the exile of many Jews there to his capital at Babylon. The shared genetic elements suggest that members of any Jewish community are related to one another as closely as are fourth or fifth cousins in a large population, which is about 10 times higher than the relationship between two people chosen at random off the streets of New York City, Dr. Atzmon said. Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews have roughly 30 percent European ancestry, with most of the rest from the Middle East, the two surveys find. The two communities seem very similar to each other genetically, which is unexpected because they have been separated for so long. One explanation is that they come from the same Jewish source population in Europe. The Atzmon-Ostrer team found that the genomic signature of Ashkenazim and Sephardim was very similar to that of Italian Jews, suggesting that an ancient population in northern Italy of Jews intermarried with Italians could have been the common origin. The Ashkenazim first appear in Northern Europe around A.D. 800, but historians suspect that they arrived there from Italy. Another explanation, which may be complementary to the first, is that there was far more interchange and intermarriage than expected between the two communities in medieval times. The genetics confirms a trend noticed by historians: that there was more contact between Ashkenazim and Sephardim than suspected, with Italy as the linchpin of interchange, said Aron Rodrigue, a Stanford University historian. A common surname among Italian Jews is Morpurgo, meaning someone from Marburg in Germany. Also, Dr. Rodrigue said, one of the most common names among the Sephardim who settled in the Ottoman Empire is Eskenazi, indicating that many Ashkenazim had joined the Sephardic community there. The two genetic surveys indicate “that there may be common origins shared by the two groups, but also that there were extensive contacts and settlements,” Dr. Rodrigue said. Hebrew could have served as the lingua franca between the Ashkenazic community, speaking Yiddish, and the Ladino-speaking Sephardim. “When Jews met each other, they spoke Hebrew,” Dr. Schiffman said, referring to the medieval period. BBC NEWS Jewish school loses places fight The Supreme Court has found a Jewish school guilty of race discrimination for refusing places to pupils it did not consider to be ethnically Jewish. Nine justices ruled, by a small majority, that the JFS in London had breached race relations legislation. The case was brought by a Jewish man whose son was not given a place because his wife was not regarded as Jewish under rules set by the Chief Rabbi. The parents were angry that their Jewish status was being questioned. 'Not racist' Giving the court's verdict, Supreme Court President Lord Philips said: "The majority of the court has concluded that the JFS admission policy does discriminate on the grounds of ethnic origin and is, in consequence, unlawful." “ The closeness of the court's judgement indicates how complex this case was ” Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks "A minority disagrees, considering that the admission requirement is exclusively a religious requirement and does not depend on ethnic origin." But he stressed that while the school had acted unlawfully over its admissions, it should not be regarded as racist. "The majority have made it plain in their judgments that the fact that the JFS admission policy has fallen foul of the Race Relations Act certainly does not mean those responsible for the admissions policy have behaved in a way that is racist, as that word as generally understood." The school went to the Supreme Court after three judges at the Court of Appeal ruled in June that the entry criteria had racially discriminated against the boy, known as M. School 'disappointed' Chairman of governors at the school Russell Kett said the school and governors were disappointed at the ruling. "We must now set about establishing a more workable solution for a Jewish practice test to be used for admissions in 2011. "JFS School felt it had no alternative than to continue to press for its test of 'Jewishness' to be based solely on orthodox Jewish religious law, rather than on a series of factors which themselves have no relevance under Jewish law, but which seem to support the notion of a test of Jewish practice required by the English legal system." Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks said the matter required "careful reflection and consultation" and instant reactions would be inappropriate. "The closeness of the court's judgement indicates how complex this case was, both in English law and in debated issues of Jewish identity. "Our office will be working closely together with the schools, the United Synagogue, the Board of Deputies and other interested parties to consider the implications of the verdict before making a full response." Jewish mother The 12-year-old boy was refused a place at the JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School) in Brent, north London, despite regularly attending a Progressive synagogue. While his father is Jewish by birth, his mother is Jewish by conversion. However, the conversion ceremony was conducted by a Progressive rather than an Orthodox synagogue, which is not recognised by the Office of the Chief Rabbi. The children of atheists, and practising Christians, were allowed to attend the school as long as their mothers were considered Jewish. Although Liberal Jews say faith is about belief rather than ethnic origin, Orthodox Jewish supporters of the school said the Supreme Court's ruling risked infringing their human rights by interfering with the way they have always been defined. The BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said the impact of the ruling on other faith schools was likely to be limited because of the close relationship between faith and ethnicity in Judaism. He said the JFS and other Jewish schools would now have to test for admissions on the basis of religious belief and practice and participation in the Jewish community. Schools Secretary Ed Balls said: "All faith schools must follow admission procedures that are non-discriminatory, and consistent with the admissions code and the law. "This is the case in the vast majority of faith schools and I understand that the JFS has amended its admissions policy in light of updated guidance from the Office of the Chief Rabbi." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/8415678.stm Published: 2009/12/16 17:14:05 GMT © BBC MMX Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By November 28, 2008 Brooklyn Rabbi and Wife Caught in Attacks By FERNANDA SANTOS In 2003, barely out of their teens and newly married, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, moved from Brooklyn to the coastal city of Mumbai, India, to manage a mix of educational center, synagogue and social hall known as a Chabad house, one of about 3,500 outposts around the world run by the Lubavitch Hasidic movement. The place soon became a year-round magnet for Israeli backpackers and the Jewish businessmen and tourists who flock to Mumbai, as well as for the Iraqi and Indian Jews who live there. Mrs. Holtzberg served visitors coffee and homemade kosher delicacies. Rabbi Holtzberg always offered a helping hand to someone who was sick or stranded, often calling worried parents or spouses miles and miles away to calm them. On Wednesday, the Holtzbergs’ Chabad house became an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai’s commercial center. Firing grenades and automatic weapons, the men also took the Holtzbergs and at least six other people hostage in the Chabad house, according to friends of the Holtzbergs. The couple’s 2-year-old son, Moshe, and a cook managed to escape about 12 hours into the siege, the friends said. The boy’s pants were soaked in blood when he emerged. By late Thursday afternoon in New York, there was still no news of his parents’ fate. It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene. But if the center lacked the size and prominence of the attackers’ other targets, the news of its fate reverberated among Chabad houses in Australia, Argentina, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Norway and 67 other countries. But perhaps nowhere was it felt more strongly than in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the nerve center of the Lubavitch community and the neighborhood where Rabbi Holtzberg grew up. At the group’s world headquarters on Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue, men filed into the synagogue all day to pray for the Holtzbergs’ safe release. In a separate room, women swayed on their knees as they read the Torah. In the offices upstairs, rabbis and friends of the couple manned telephones, staying in contact with a sizable network of volunteers at the house in Mumbai, waiting for news. “We were up all night, trying to sort fact from fiction, figure out what their status is,” Rabbi Dovid Zaklikowski, 28, a friend of Rabbi Holtzberg since high school, said in an interview. The Lubavitchers’ headquarters occupies a wide five-story building that is the tallest on the block. It is the site of an annual conference for the emissaries who run Chabad houses. This year’s conference ended last weekend, but many of the participants stayed behind to spend Thanksgiving with relatives in the area. On Thursday, they found themselves drawn to the synagogue, even those who said they knew Rabbi Holtzberg only by name. Someone scribbled an English translation of the Hebrew sign affixed to the temple’s doors, bearing the couple’s names. The translation read, in part: “Think positive thoughts and good will come.” “For our movement, this is a very somber day,” said Rabbi Sagee Harshefer, who heads the Chabad house in Ness Ziona, Israel, about 12 miles south of Tel Aviv. “But there is hope.” Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were born in Israel, though he and his siblings were brought to Crown Heights as children by their parents. The couple married a year before they went to Mumbai, formerly Bombay, to fulfill a role that Rabbi Zaklikowski said fit perfectly with Rabbi Holtzberg’s personality. “He has a huge heart, always willing to help somebody in need,” the rabbi said. “It’s only natural that he would give himself to the community.” Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, who directed the Chabad emissaries’ conference, said of Rabbi Holtzberg, “He is a very dynamic, energetic individual” who turned Mumbai’s Chabad house into “a home away from home for thousands and thousands of Jews.” At midafternoon in New York on Wednesday, the first reports of the attacks in Mumbai hit the news, but no one in the Crown Heights Lubavitch community knew exactly where they had occurred — and no one suspected that the Chabad house had been hit. Still, some friends wanted to make sure that Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife and son were all right, so they phoned. There was no answer. Yacov Young, Rabbi Holtzberg’s cousin, said he had been at home in Crown Heights, celebrating the birth of his son and a brother-in-law’s marriage, when his phone rang about midnight. “Our hearts sank when we heard the bad news,” Mr. Young said as he dashed into the synagogue. Rabbi Holtzberg’s parents, Noah and Freida, spent most of Thursday holed up in their house in Crown Heights, but left for Israel late in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Rivka Holtzberg’s parents, Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg, who live in Israel, boarded a plane to Mumbai. They were accompanied by a crew from the Israeli relief organization ZAKA, said Dov Maisel, a medic with the group, by telephone from Israel. “They are on a mission to get their grandson, but they are very, very nervous” about their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. Maisel said. “Some 24 hours have passed, and they have heard nothing.” Liz Robbins contributed reporting. Jimmy Carter's Legacy of Failure Cinnamon Stillwell Wednesday, December 12, 2006 * Printable Version * Email This Article Cinnamon Stillwell Archive Opinion .Main Opinion Page .Chronicle Sunday Insight .Chronicle Campaigns SF Chronicle Submissions .Letters to the Editor .Open Forum .Sunday Insight It seems that everywhere one looks lately, former President Jimmy Carter is hawking his new book, "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid." The inflammatory title has not won Carter any new fans from the pro-Israel side of the equation. But for those who buy into the history of the Middle East conflict that's been promulgated through years of anti-Israel propaganda, Carter's use of the term "apartheid" is a confirmation of all they hold dear. The attempt to associate Israel with apartheid era South Africa has indeed been a popular and effective tactic in the arsenal of anti-Israel talking points. It matters little that the charge is untrue. One simply has to insert the word "apartheid" into the discussion and the damage is done. Carter himself admits toward the end of his book that his use of the term "apartheid" was not meant literally and that the situation in Israel "is unlike that in South Africa -- not racism, but the acquisition of land." In response to criticism of his choice of words, Carter told the Los Angeles Times that he was trying to call attention to what he sees as the "economic form" of apartheid afflicting the Palestinian territories. During an interview with Judy Woodruff of "The News Hour" on PBS, Carter reiterated that he only used "apartheid" in his title to "provoke discussion." When an author concedes that his chosen title is inaccurate, it calls into question the entire premise of his book. There are those who have called Carter's entire book into question, including friend and colleague Dr. Kenneth W. Stein. A well-known Middle East scholar, and until recently a fellow of Emory University's Carter Center, Stein resigned his position because of strenuous objections to the content of Carter's book. In an e-mail message regarding his resignation, Stein described the book as "replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments." The copied materials involve two maps from former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross' book "The Missing Peace." In an appearance on Fox News, Ross confirmed that the maps originated with his book, and he objected not only to the lack of attribution but also to Carter's inaccurate presentation of the historical facts involved. Similarly, attorney Alan Dershowitz, in a scathing review, writes that "Mr. Carter's book is so filled with simple mistakes of fact and deliberate omissions that were it a brief filed in a court of law, it would be struck and its author sanctioned for misleading the court." Top-ranking Democrats have also disavowed Carter's work. Both Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi issued statements on Carter's book, distancing themselves and the Democratic Party from his divisive rhetoric. Meanwhile, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., an African American, condemned Carter's inappropriate use of the term "apartheid" in his title, labeling it "offensive." Intimations of Anti-Semitism Carter's contention in the book, and one that he recently discussed with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, is that a "minority of Israelis have refused to swap land for peace." This is laughable, considering the repeated examples of Israeli governments doing just that. Successive administrations, whether under Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon or now Ehud Olmert (who's practically falling all over himself to give away Israeli land), have offered or given up territory, only to be met with increased aggression. Recent examples include the ongoing violence in Gaza following Israel's disengagement plan and the war in Lebanon six long years after Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon. One has to wonder if Carter's single-minded obsession with Israel as the root of the problems in the world -- not to mention the stubbornly one-sided view of the Middle East conflict to which he has a history of subscribing -- has any anti-Semitic underpinnings. Such is the suspicion among many of Carter's harshest critics. In fact, during a recent appearance by Carter on C-SPAN's "Book TV," a caller accused him of being an "anti-Semite" and a "bigot," to which Carter reacted with denial. But this was hardly the first time that intimations of anti-Semitism have tainted Carter's career. In an article titled "Jimmy Carter's Jewish Problem," Jason Maoz, senior editor at Jewish Press, reveals that "during a March 1980 meeting with his senior political advisers, Carter, discussing his fading reelection prospects and his sinking approval rating in the Jewish community, snapped, 'If I get back in, I'm going to [expletive] the Jews.'" Maoz also references the 1976 presidential campaign during which Carter, fearing that his opponent Senator Henry ("Scoop") Jackson had the Jewish vote in the Democratic primaries locked up, "instructed his staff not to issue any more statements on the Middle East. 'Jackson has all the Jews anyway … we get the Christians.'" Strengthening Israel's Enemies Carter's history of involvement with the Middle East conflict is no less troublesome. It was Carter who brokered the first in a series of largely ineffective and in the long run incredibly damaging Arab-Israeli peace treaties. Far from pushing peace, such agreements have only strengthened the disdain toward Israel from its Arab neighbors and led to further violence. Carter's claim to fame in the peace process arena was the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed at Camp David by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. While the alleged peace between Egypt and Israel has held up to this day, increased hostility in Egypt toward Israel and Jews has been the true legacy. At some point, one has to come to the logical conclusion that a peace treaty that inspires hatred is not worth the paper it's printed on. Instead, Carter received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts in the Middle East, among other locales. Such efforts continue with Carter's apparent fondness for Hamas, the terrorist group turned government, which, he insists, will become a "non-violent organization" despite all indications to the contrary. Before that, it was his cozy relationship with Palestinian dictator Yasser Arafat. Friend to Dictators Indeed, it seems there are very few dictators in the world to whose defense Carter has not rallied -- Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, former Yugoslav strongman Marshal Josef Tito, former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, former Pakistani General Zia ul-Haq, former North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung and now his son Kim Jong Il, to name a few. Carter's eagerness to appease the former Soviet Union and his opposition to his successor President Ronald Reagan's uncompromising approach (which has been widely credited with helping bring down the "evil empire") also speak to his lack of understanding when it comes to the nature of totalitarian regimes. Then there's Carter's propensity for certifying obviously compromised elections in places such as Venezuela and Haiti. Carter's failed approach to foreign policy has indeed put America in a perilous position in the world. If we look at some of the major challenges facing the United States today, we can thank Jimmy Carter for getting us off on the wrong foot. Whether it's the Middle East, Iran or North Korea, Carter's track record as president is nothing to brag about and his career as ex-president has been even worse. 'Worst Ex-President' Author Steven F. Hayward, who has labeled Carter the "worst ex-president" certainly thinks so. In his book, "The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry," Hayward runs down the ways in which America continues to reap the legacy of Carter's missteps, both during his presidential term and after. When it comes to the belligerence of North Korea, Carter's past involvement has done considerable damage. In the early 1990s, Carter traveled to North Korea on another of his "peacekeeping missions" and brokered a deal with dictator Kim Il Sung. He did so without the blessing of the Clinton administration, although, at the behest of then-Vice President Al Gore, President Clinton later agreed to adopt Carter's deal. The United States ended up providing aid, oil and, incredibly, material for building light-water nuclear reactors to the North Koreans in exchange for their abandoning their nuclear weapons program. The problem is they didn't abandon their nuclear weapons program; they just said they did. And in 2002, they admitted as much. Still, to this day, Carter claims that his approach was a success and that it was President Bush's inclusion of North Korea in the famous "axis of evil" speech that led to current leader Kim Jong Il's hostility toward America. The fruits of Carter's history with Iran are even more rotten. Carter's abandonment of the shah in 1977-78 helped lead to the Islamic revolution (and the murder or imprisonment of many of the Iranian leftists who had supported overthrowing the shah), the emboldening of the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan and the rise of radical Islam worldwide. His botched approach to the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 inspired Islamic terrorists all over the world, culminating in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The threat of nuclear war emanating from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can be seen as another offshoot of Carter's ineffective policies. Predictably, Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski, his former national security adviser, are now pushing for "direct talks" with Iran. But considering the abject failure of U.N.-brokered negotiations (supported by the Bush administration) thus far, it is difficult to imagine how U.S.-led negotiations would fare any better. Wherever U.S. interests have been imperiled and a temporary "peace" could be bought at the expense of long-term security, Carter has always been on board. The late Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan summed it up when he said of Carter in 1980, "Unable to distinguish between our friends and our enemies, he has essentially adopted our enemies' view of the world." Meddler and Failure Another of Jimmy Carter's dubious legacies has been the now common habit of former presidents meddling in current politics. Carter has made many an enemy among both Republican and Democratic administrations by undermining their foreign policies via the Carter Center. As Chris Suellentrop put it in an article for Slate magazine, Carter has "difficulties coming to grips with the fact that he … [is] not president." Despite the overwhelming evidence of failure, Carter has become something of a sacred cow to many liberals, who often express outrage when their hero is criticized. But no one who inserts himself into the public sphere is above criticism. And how quickly Carter's fans forget the malaise that gripped the nation under his presidency. My own childhood memories of the time consist mostly of long lines snaking around gas stations due to the embargo on Iranian oil, not to mention a general feeling in the country of want and hopelessness. Carter may have inherited a recession, but his presidency did little to improve the weak economy. This was among the reasons that he lost re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Yet somehow Carter's presidency is still held up by some as a shining example for the current leadership to follow. Woe unto Israel now that Carter's book has entered the pantheon of propaganda. And woe unto America if Jimmy Carter is our guiding light. This article has been corrected since it originally appeared. Cinnamon Stillwell is a San Francisco writer. She can be reached at cinnamonstillwell@yahoo.com. Read her blog at cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/. Media Monitor By: Jason Maoz, Senior Editor Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Jimmy Carter’s Jewish Problem For those with eyes to see, there were hints as far back as the 1976 presidential campaign of the trouble to come. Early that year, Harper’s magazine published “Jimmy Carter’s Pathetic Lies,” a devastating exposé of Carter’s record in Georgia by a then little-known journalist named Steven Brill. Reg Murphy, who as editor of the Atlanta Constitution had kept a close eye on Carter’s rise in state politics, declared, “Jimmy Carter is one of the three or four phoniest men I ever met.” Speechwriter Bob Shrum quit the Carter campaign after just a few weeks, disgusted with what he described as Carter’s penchant for fudging the truth. He also related that Carter, convinced the Jewish vote in the Democratic primaries would go to Senator Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, had instructed his staff not to issue any more statements on the Middle East. Advertisement “Jackson has all the Jews anyway,” Shrum quoted Carter as saying. “We get the Christians.” Relations between Carter and Israel were tense from the outset of the Carter presidency. Carter’s hostility was evident to Israeli foreign minister Moshe Dayan, who in his memoir Breakthrough described a July 1977 White House meeting between Carter and Israeli officials. “You are more stubborn than the Arabs, and you put obstacles on the path to peace,’’ an angry Carter scolded Dayan and his colleagues. “Our talk,” Dayan wrote, “lasted more than an hour and was most unpleasant. President Carter ... launched charge after charge against Israel.” On October 1, 1977, the U.S. and the Soviet Union unexpectedly issued a joint statement on the Middle East calling for an Arab-Israeli peace conference in Geneva, with the participation of Palestinian representatives. The communiqué marked the first time the U.S. officially employed the phrase “legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” Reaction in the U.S. was immediate and furious. “[A] political firestorm erupted,” wrote historian Steven Spiegel. “After American officials had worked successfully for years to reduce Russian influence over the Mideast peace process and in the area as whole, critics could not understand why the administration had suddenly invited Moscow to return.” Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who five years earlier had expelled thousands of Soviet military advisers from Egypt, neither liked nor trusted the Russians, and decided to kill the U.S.-Soviet initiative in the womb. His decision to go to Jerusalem to address the Knesset electrified the world and caught the Carter administration completely off guard. Eventually the U.S. would broker what became known as the Camp David Accords and oversee the signing of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. But Carter was far from a dispassionate third party. His disdain for Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and near hero-worship of Sadat were clearly reflected in his demeanor and has informed nearly everything he’s written on the Middle East since leaving office. In The Unfinished Presidency, his book about Carter’s post-White House activities, the liberal historian Douglas Brinkley provides a detailed account of the former president’s obsession with helping Palestinian terror chief Yasir Arafat polish his image. Carter, according to Brinkley, regularly advised Arafat on how to shape his message for Western journalists and even wrote some speeches for him. Carter was also a vocal critic of Israeli policies and “view[ed] the unarmed young Palestinians who stood up against thousands of Israel soldiers as ‘instant heroes,’ ” wrote Brinkley. “Buoyed by the intifada, Carter passed on to the Palestinians, through Arafat, his congratulations.” Former New York mayor Ed Koch, in his 1984 bestseller Mayor, recounted a conversation he had shortly before the 1980 election with Cyrus Vance, who’d recently resigned as Carter’s secretary of state. Koch told Vance that many Jews would not be voting for Carter because they feared “that if he is reelected he will sell them out.” “Vance,” recalled Koch, “nodded and said, ‘He will.’ ” In Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship, Andrew and Leslie Cockburn revealed that during a March 1980 meeting with his senior political advisers, Carter, discussing his fading reelection prospects and his sinking approval rating in the Jewish community, snapped, “If I get back in, I’m going to [expletive] the Jews.” Carter – such was the country’s good fortune – did not get back in. But as evidenced by his years of pro-Palestinian advocacy, reams of anti-Israel op-ed articles, and the release last week of his latest book/screed, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, he’s been trying to [expletive] the Jews ever since. New York - No, I don’t applaud the now-infamous YouTube– but I do not agree with much of the criticism leveled against it. To co-opt the phraseology of another writer on the topic, I am a “maximalist” regarding the reverence and honor due to the Avos. I’ve gotten into heated and public debate with those who saw the Avos as just ordinary people who happened to be the first kids on the Jewish block. The Avos are the very foundation of Am Yisrael, the ones who uncovered certain midos of HKBH and made them part of our world. We invoke their names in davening not because of their primacy, but because of their spiritual accomplishment. My beef with the video is that it was predictable that some people would – quite inappropriately, I believe – see it as a swipe at the Avos, or at those who choose to take the words of Chazal literally unless guided to an allegorical approach by a Torah giant of the past. We ought not to take chances and liberties with the respect owed to the Avos, or to large numbers of yerei’im u-sheleimim. The video was creative, smart, and fun – but I would not have the risked the reaction. I almost always find Rabbi Yair Hoffman’s writing to be intelligent and engaging. Jews were perhaps destined to disagree with each other; on this issue I will have to disagree with several of his points. I don’t believe that the video denigrated either the Avos or those who take the “maximalist” approach to Chazal in general. The target of the video was people who do not stop and think. If I were asked for input into planned additions to the cardinal sins of Torah Judaism, I too would put disengaging the brain on the short list. There is not a single question addressed by the skeptic in the video that has not been asked by talmidei chachamim of the past, starting with the question of how Yaakov could marry two sisters if he kept the entire Torah. (Ramban’s answer – that he observed Torah law only inside Israel, but not outside – is well known. Fewer know of the Maharal’s approach: the Avos only kept mitzvos aseh/ affirmative obligations, but were not bound by any prohibitions.) Those who tended towards taking Chazal literally were faced with more questions than those given to allegorical interpretation. They met the challenge and answered the questions. Now, some people might find some of those answers elegant, and others find them strained and unattractive. The point is that talmidei chachamim asked the questions. They were aware of the difficulties, and had grappled with them. The yeshiva bochur in the video, however, meets every question with – silence. He shows a triumphalist attitude towards his interlocutor, but he has never thought of the questions, and is left speechless. The video, I believe, mocks those who uncritically absorb without stopping to think of the implications and the difficulties. Torah is too complex and too precious to treat that way. Moreover, the so-called “traditionalist” approach (a misnomer, since the older works dealing with aggada – and probably the majority who have directly considered the issue – take an allegorical approach) works best for people with a surfeit of emunah peshutah. By now, most of us wish we had a way to mass-produce and bottle that precious commodity. Alas, we are hearing more and more of our children ask more challenging questions about more fundamental issues at earlier ages. Three things are guaranteed to turn them off: angrily suppressing questions, not validating their questions, and giving them bad answers. The video not only raises a good point, it should sound an alarm. If that yeshiva bochur winds up in a classroom, we don’t want our children to be there. I find the word “maximalist” problematic when linked to a more literalist position. I understand where Rabbi Hoffman is coming from, but I think there is much merit in reversing the designations of maximalist and minimalist. At least the Maharal believed so. Contrary to the assumption of those unfamiliar with Maharal, he did not help the student of Chazal by successfully allegorizing difficult ma’amorei Chazal. More often than not, he allegorized as well the passages that do not strike people as difficult! He did so because, he says, Chazal’s words are far more profound than people think. Taking their words at face value obscures the deeper meaning contained in them. That meaning becomes accessible only when you uncover their allegorical sense. To Maharal, the allegorists are the maximalists in wringing out the most enlightenment from the words of Chazal, while the literalists are the minimalists! The swipe at YU (included in the Voz is Neias version, but not in the Five Towns text) will hopefully not cause too much grief to bnei Torah from that institution. They should see it as a compliment. After all, Rabbi Hoffman argues that those involved in kiruv should present three different general approaches to Chazal. Graduates of YU can pride themselves in having access to rabbeim who have experience with, and can offer guidance in, all three of those approaches. If people versed in Emunos V’Deos, Moreh Nevuchim et al (not to mention the works of figures like R Dovid Tzvi Hoffman and the Sridei Aish) are magidei shiur in American yeshivos, their identities are being hidden very well from the rest of us. Rabbi Hoffman writes that “the overwhelming majority of Torah authorities, however, clearly and completely hold of the maximalist position.” I hope that he doesn’t mean that they hold the maximalist position in general, not just regarding the particular issue of the Avos observing all of the Torah. That would put them in the second category that the Rambam talks about in his introduction to Perek Chelek. (About those literalists Rambam writes that instead of the nations praising us as a “wise and comprehending nation is this great people,” they instead point to “a foolish and degraded nation is this small people,” for believing inanities.) More likely, they hold what the Rambam writes in his Introduction to Mishnah, that Chazal hid their true intention in parables and stories, so that children would be able to grasp them. The plain-sense meaning of Chazal is important to reach the greatest number of people. We should not confuse them with sophistication that they cannot understand. (Even in this there are exceptions. R Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l spoke many years ago to a yeshiva principals’ convention. He mentioned the dispute between Rav and Shmuel whether the “new king” at the beginning of Shemos was a different person, or merely the same monarch who had adopted radically new policies. R Yaakov opined that neither of the two opinions had a mesorah as to the “facts.” Rather, they disputed whether a person who had benefited from someone as greatly as Paroh had from Yosef could later turn on his legacy completely, and bathe in the blood of his descendants. The dispute was about the human personality, not about the succession of Egyptian rulers. One principal asked R Yaakov whether this was the way to teach children in elementary school classrooms, and he responded affirmatively!) We should also, however, remember the next words of the Rambam, which state that the early, literal approach to Chazal is justified until such time as their minds mature and they can understand the nimshal – the real, deeper intent of Chazal! The “maximalist” position that Rabbi Hoffman detects may also reflect a different subtlety. It is difficult to believe that those with whom he is acquainted are simply unaware of just how many in our mesorah were not literalists. That would be tragic. To believe that they are aware of them, and have “paskened” that they are now to be considered beyond the pale would be even worse. To take shitos of beloved rishonim and acharonim and ban them from use would be unparalleled in Torah history. (The words I have heard from my own rabbeim about such a position are the closest to “expletive deleted” that you can get from talmidei chachamim.) The bottom line is that I fully agree with Rabbi Hoffman. He states that all three of the positions he culls from Torah literature should be presented to certain people. We simply disagree about who those people are. I believe that in communities that are hermetically sealed off from outside exposure, it might be that only the “maximalist” approach should be used, in order to preserve the beautiful presence of emunah peshutah. Those of us reading the Five Towns Jewish Journal and Vos Iz Neias online, however, may need more weapons in our holster against the inevitable depredations of Amalek, whose modus operandi is the creation of safek, of doubt and uncertainty, in our minds. If we take the time to think, unlike the cartoon bochur of the video, Hashem will surely guide us to the proper insights from within Chazal. You can view this article online at VosIzNeias.com/69616 Copyright © 1999 - 2008 VosIzNeias.com - All rights reserved. November 6, 2008, 9:03 pm Tears to Remember On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: “Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.” “Save this paper,” she told us. “This is the start of a whole new era.” And it was. An era of unbridled deregulation, wealth-enhancing perks for the already well-off, and miserly indifference to the poor and middle class; of the recasting of greed as goodness, the equation of bellicose provincialism with patriotism, the reframing of bigotry as small-town decency. In short, it was the start of our current era. The Reagan Revolution was the formative political experience of my generation’s lifetime, like the Great Depression, the Second World War or Vietnam for those before us. And in its intellectual and moral paucity, in its eventual hegemony, these years shut down, for some of us, the ability to fully imagine another way. I will admit that back in January, when Barack Obama, in his post-Iowa victory speech, spoke about the “cynics,” the “they” who said “this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose,” he was talking about me. I will admit that the call of “change” did not speak to me as an achievable goal. Until it actually came. On Wednesday, there was a run on newspapers, as voters rushed to grab a tangible piece of the history they’d made. My husband Max and I, unable to find extra copies, brought our own worn papers home to 8- and 11-year-old Emilie and Julia. Sept. 11, the seismic event that we’d feared would forever form their political consciousness, shaping their world and constricting the boundaries of the possible, had actually been eclipsed, light blotting out darkness, the best of America at long last driving away the demons of fear. We wanted them to see that it was the end of an era. “Look,” we said, pointing to the headline “Racial Barrier Falls.” “This is huge.” We labored to make them understand that their world — art that day, and orchestra, and Baked Potato Bar at lunch — had irrevocably changed. But how can you understand change when you’ve only known one way of being? They were happy because we were happy. They rose to the occasion in that bemused way children do when adults tell them what they should feel. They were glad to be rid of George W. Bush and to be saved – for now – from the specter of Sarah Palin. (“It is not O.K. to say she’s an ‘idiot,’” I had snapped when they came home from school stoked by the mob. “Prove your case. Show, don’t tell.”) They’d had, like many D.C. children, more than their share of politics. After first following the country into battle against the all-purpose boogeyman Saddam Hussein, they’d become antiwar. They had opinions on tax policy and spoke angrily about the “wealth gap.” In the past election year, they’d been fired up about the woman thing, in all its pretty girl versus smart girl iterations; in fact, they and their friends had remained hard-core Hillaryites long after their moms had moved on. But the race thing? The groundbreaking immensity of the election of our country’s first African-American president? “You’re being racist,” Emilie had said when I made a comment about how particularly earth-moving this election was for black voters. “Why should it matter if people are black or white?” Theirs has often looked to me like a world drained of meaning. Girl power put to the service of selling Hannah Montana. Feel-good inclusiveness that occulted the very real conflicts, crimes and hatreds of history. It isn’t easy to let go of the past to embrace something new, to risk heartbreak on the chance of the world’s actually having changed. Or at least, it hasn’t been easy for me. But it comes naturally to some. Like the hundreds of George Washington University students who gathered in front of the White House on Tuesday night, cheering and screaming and shouting their goodbyes to the political era of their youth. “Bliss it was to be alive, but to be young was very heaven,” Max emailed me, paraphrasing William Wordsworth on the French Revolution, at 11:30 p.m. on election night, after leaving his desk to walk among the revelers downtown. I, home with the kids, was in bed, sleeping the drugged sleep of an alcohol-abstaining migraineuse after drinking half a glass of celebratory champagne. Colin Powell did not dance for joy over Obama’s victory; he wept. “Look what we did. Look what we did,” he said, puffy-faced, red-eyed, fighting back more tears on CNN. “He’s won. It’s over.” David Dinkins was similarly solemn. “Things do change. There is a God. They do get better,” said the mayor who presided over New York City at a time of toxic racial tensions. Obama, too, resisted giddy gladness on Tuesday night. But he did proclaim an end to the world as we’ve known it for far too long. “To those who would tear the world down: we will defeat you,” he promised. “This is our moment. This is our time.” The glory of Barack Obama is that there are so many different kinds of us who can claim a piece of that “our.” African-Americans, Democrats, post-boomers, progressives, people who rose from essentially nowhere and through hard work and determination succeeded beyond their parents’ wildest dreams are the most obvious. But there are also people who respect intelligence and good grammar. People who see their spouse as their “best friend,” as Barack called Michelle on Tuesday night. People whose children have the same knowing look as Sasha and Malia, who are probably more excited about their puppy than about their father’s presidency. Two images will forever stay in my mind to mark this epoch-breaking election day. One is that of Jesse Jackson’s face, drenched in tears, in Chicago’s Grant Park on Tuesday evening. And the other is a photo that ran in The Times on Wednesday. In it, a black mother and daughter sit on the floor of a church in Harlem. The mother, Latrice Barnes, having heard of Obama’s victory, is doubled up in tears; her daughter, Jasmine, is reaching a tentative hand up to soothe her. To me, she looks like the future, reaching out to heal the past. Obama's victoryAt the First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, Latrice Barnes, right, is comforted by her daughter Jasmine Redd, 5. (David Goldman for The New York Times) It is, I suppose, in part a matter of temperament, whether one shouts or weeps at happy transformative moments. But I also think it’s a matter of what has come before. The young people joyfully frolicking in front of the Bush White House never knew the universe whose passing was marked by Obama’s victory and Jackson’s tears. This moment of triumph marks the end of such a long period of pain, of indignity and injustice for African-Americans. And for so many others of us, of the trampling and debasing of our most basic ideals, beliefs that we cherished every bit as deeply and passionately as those of the “values voters” around whose sensibilities we’ve had to tiptoe for the past 28 years. The election brought the return of a country we’d lost for so long that it was almost forgotten under the accumulated scar tissue of accommodation and acceptance. For me, this will be the enduring memory of election night 2008: One generation released its grief. The next looked up confusedly, eager to please and yet unable to comprehend just what the tears were about. Long Island IPod Nano Offer NewsLI.com Search: * Home * About * Archive * Classifieds * Local Guide * Online Community * Weather Subscribe to NewsLI.comSubscribe * Business * Entertainment * Health * Money * Politics * Society * Sports * Technology Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Browse > Home / Health / Senate Democrats Move to Ban Tier 4 Prescription Drug Pricing Plan Senate Democrats Move to Ban Tier 4 Prescription Drug Pricing Plan April 23, 2008 4-23_-_ms_photo.jpg (Long Island, N.Y.) State Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith (St-Albans) and members of the Senate Democratic Conference today announced they will introduce legislation preventing health insurers from implementing a prescription drug pricing system in New York that has dramatically increased consumer co-payments in other states. “Health insurance companies are proposing new pricing methods for high-priced prescription drugs, asking patients to shell out hundreds and even thousands of dollars of their earnings for medications they need to survive,” said Smith, the St. Albans Democrat. “This new structure means the obligation of health care and prescription costs will be shifted from health insurers and thrown onto the backs of struggling low-and middle-income families that may need specialty medications in order to survive. The whole point of health insurance is to share the costs of paying to keep people healthy and well.” In New York State, most Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) currently operate under a standard three-tier system ($5 generic, $10 or more for preferred-brand, and $25 or more for non-preferred brand) common to most people who use private insurance. But, increasingly families and individuals in other states struggling with diagnoses of anemia, cancer, multiple sclerosis and hepatitis C, who depend on cutting-edge medications for functioning or daily survival have been hit hard by pricing increases that can amount to 33 percent of the total costs of each prescription. Instead of the standard co-pay, patients are seeing fees dramatically increase to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per prescription. One New York City woman suffering from multiple sclerosis said that the proposed Tier 4 pricing system would make her medication completely unaffordable by dramatically increasing her $25 monthly co-payment to as high as $735. Another MS sufferer in Orange County said that if Tier 4 where implemented his $35 monthly co-payments could reach $805. “Tier 4 drug pricing is a terrible concept,” said Senator Neil D. Breslin (D-Albany), ranking Democrat on the Standing Committee on Insurance. “Insurance is designed to spread risk among a group of people. Singling out our sickest and most vulnerable to pay more money for their health care is unforgivable in any context, let alone in a climate where HMOs are recording excessive profits and a HMO like HIP is allowed to double the compensation of its top ten executives.” Senator John L. Sampson, the ranking Democrat on the Health Committee said that an extensive review needs to be conducted of “this unfair proposal.” “We must block the possibility that New Yorkers will be subject to this unnecessary and unfair burden of unaffordable price increases for their medication,” said Senator Sampson (D-Brooklyn). “Not only will the negative effects be felt by the patient, but in these times of hardship, families will be left choosing between essential health care and life’s basic necessities like food and shelter.” According to the New York State Insurance Department (DOI), premiums and rate changes are reviewed by the Superintendent of Insurance. Health insurance companies are required to submit a formal application which DOI may modify, approve, or reject. DOI has not approved any Tier 4 proposals for New York residents, and no Tier 4 plans are currently in effect here. Senate Democrats will introduce legislation barring the pricing system in New York State. Smith and his Senate colleagues joined health advocacy groups in urging New York State Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo to continue to reject all Tier 4 applications that may be submitted before the proposed legislation is signed into law. ”We applaud Senator Smith for taking action on a critical issue that affects thousands of people living with Multiple Sclerosis,” said Pamela J. Wiener on behalf of the New York City Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. “The medications used to treat MS are among the first to be assigned to specialty tiers. Accordingly, the Senator’s legislation will protect many people living with MS who would otherwise pay $630 co-pay each month for a medication to treat the disease. At these costs, many people would be forced to forgo taking these essential medications that are used to slow down the progress of the disease and reduce future disability.” Some health insurers have argued that the new pricing structure is necessary to reduce employer medical insurance premiums. But Senate Democrats maintain that the proposed implementation of the Tier 4 pricing would unfairly shift the burden to consumers. Senator Efrain Gonzalez, Jr. (who has a medically-disabled son who requires special medications already on the Tier 4 list in other states) said that “If this Tier Four structure is permitted in New York State, all families will be living on the brink of a medical state of emergency.” ”If they are confronted with new sky-high co-payments under Tier 4, working families in my district will clearly be at risk of losing their health, homes, quality of life and their dignity,” said Sen. Gonzalez, Jr., a Bronx Democrat. “We need immediate action to prevent these proposals and protect our most vulnerable families and individuals.” Smith added: “Hard-working families and individuals living with medical conditions are depending on us to help provide affordable health insurance and prescription drugs. We will do all we can to make sure that health care remains accessible and affordable.” : Photo: BANNING TIER 4- Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith (D-St.Albans) along with Senate colleagues and health care advocates stood on the steps of New York City Hall announcing legislation to prevent health insurers from implementing the controversial Tier 4 prescription drug pricing system in New York. The pricing-plan dramatically increased co-payments in other states. (L-R) Democratic Senator’s Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), John Sabini (D-Queens), Efrain Gonzalez, Jr. (D-Bronx), John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), Malcolm A. Smith (D-St. Albans), Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx). Posted by News LI Editor · Edited by Cuizon - Filed Under Health Have a press release or local story you would like us to review? Let us know about it! News Comments Got something to say? Name (required) Email Address (required) Website Speak your mind Breaking News Video Latest News * Long Island Arts Alliance Presents First Scholar-Artists Awards * Senate Democrats Move to Ban Tier 4 Prescription Drug Pricing Plan Most Popular * Presidential Candidate Ron Paul Bears Empty Pot * Giuliani, Romney, McCain Offered $10,000 to Prove Sections * Business * Entertainment * Health * Money * Politics * Society * Sports * Technology Archives * April 2008 * March 2008 * February 2008 * January 2008 * December 2007 * November 2007 * October 2007 * September 2007 Related Sites * Business Directory * Court News Forum * Long Island Gazette * Long Island Jobs * Long Island News * Long Island NY * LongIsland.info * MyLongIsland Newsroom * Contact * Login Coolsavings Coupons Register Domain Names Copyright © 2008 NewsLI.com · In cooperation with: Long Island Exchange ® Inc. and Searchen Networks ® Inc. · Login Long Island News StatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter A Data Crusader, a Defendant and Now, a Cause Michael Francis McElroy/The New York Times Aaron Swartz in 2009. One person remembered him as a “a complicated prodigy.” By NOAM COHEN Published: January 13, 2013 At an afternoon vigil at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Sunday, Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old technology wunderkind who killed himself on Friday, was remembered as a great programmer and a provocative thinker by a handful of students who attended. Related Internet Activist, a Creator of RSS, Is Dead at 26, Apparently a Suicide (January 13, 2013) The Lede Blog: Remembering Aaron Swartz (January 12, 2013) Bits Blog: In Swartz Tribute, Hackers Attack M.I.T. Site (January 14, 2013) And he was recalled as something else, a hero of the free culture movement — a coalition as varied as Wikipedia contributors, Flickr photographers and online educators, and prominent figures like Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and online vigilantes like Anonymous. They share a belief in using the Internet to provide easy, open access to the world’s knowledge. “He’s something to aspire toward,” said Benjamin Hitov, a 23-year-old Web programmer from Cambridge, Mass., who said he had cried when he learned the news about Mr. Swartz. “I think all of us would like to be a bit more like him. Most of us aren’t quite as idealistic as he was. But we still definitely respect that.” The United States government has a very different view of Mr. Swartz. In 2011, he was arrested and accused of using M.I.T.’s computers to gain illegal access to millions of scholarly papers kept by Jstor, a subscription-only service for distributing scientific and literary journals. At his trial, which was to begin in April, he faced the possibility of millions of dollars in fines and up to 35 years in prison, punishments that friends and family say haunted him for two years and led to his suicide. Mr. Swartz was a flash point in the debate over whether information should be made widely available. On one side were activists like Mr. Swartz and advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Students for Free Culture. On the other were governments and corporations that argued that some information must be kept private for security or commercial reasons. After his death, Mr. Swartz has come to symbolize a different debate over how aggressively governments should pursue criminal cases against people like Mr. Swartz who believe in “freeing” information. In a statement, his family said in part: “Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. attorney’s office and at M.I.T. contributed to his death.” On Sunday evening, M.I.T.’s president, L. Rafael Reif, said he had appointed a prominent professor, Hal Abelson, to “lead a thorough analysis of M.I.T.’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present.” He promised to disclose the report, adding, “It pains me to think that M.I.T. played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy.” M.I.T.’s Web site was inaccessible at times on Sunday. Officials there did not provide a cause, but hackers claimed responsibility. While Mr. Swartz viewed his making copies of academic papers as an unadulterated good, spreading knowledge, the prosecutor compared Mr. Swartz’s actions to using a crowbar to break in and steal someone’s money under the mattress. On Sunday, she declined to comment on Mr. Swartz’s death out of respect for his family’s privacy. The question of how to treat online crimes is still a vexing one, many years into the existence of the Internet. Prosecutors have great discretion on what to charge under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the law cited in Mr. Swartz’s case, and how to value the loss. “The question in any given case is whether the prosecutor asked for too much, and properly balanced the harm caused in a particular case with the defendant’s true culpability,” said Marc Zwillinger, a former federal cybercrimes prosecutor. The belief that information is power and should be shared freely — which Mr. Swartz described in a treatise in 2008 — is under considerable legal assault. The immediate reaction among those sympathetic to Mr. Swartz has been anger and a vow to soldier on. Young people interviewed on Sunday spoke of the government’s power to intimidate. “Using certain people as poster children for deterring others from doing that same action, ultimately it won’t work,” Jennifer Baek, a third-year student at New York Law School, said by telephone, referring to Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been charged with multiple counts in the leaking of confidential documents, and Mr. Swartz. Ms. Baek, a member of the board of Students for Free Culture, said the comments on blogs and discussion boards she had visited since Mr. Swartz’s death showed that “people aren’t afraid to say this is what the injustice was.” The ingredients for trouble perhaps lay in Mr. Swartz’s personal and direct approach to solving problems. As one mentor, Cory Doctorow of the popular Web site Boing Boing, wrote in tribute, he was highly impressionable and sought after and was forgiven by those he worked with and worked for. A permanent “kid genius,” Mr. Swartz had often put his skills to the task of making information more accessible. At 14 he was a co-creator of RSS, a tool that allows online content to be distribute, and then made a tidy sum as one of the creators of the social-news site Reddit, now part of Condé Nast. But even before, and certainly after, he crusaded for open access to data. His projects include a range of influential efforts like the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, Wikipedia and the Recap collection of legal documents. He also began more traditional projects for subjects he took an interest in. At 19, he volunteered to upload the archive of a defunct magazine he loved, Lingua Franca. In 2005, he called up the writer Rick Perlstein to offer to create a Web page for him after reading a book of his he liked. “I smelled a hustle, asking him how much it would cost, and he said, no, he wanted to do it for free,” Mr. Perlstein wrote in The Nation over the weekend. “I thought: ‘What a loser this guy must be. Someone with nothing better to do.’ ” Mr. Perlstein writes that he ended up becoming friends, and he sent chapters of his next book, “Nixonland,” to Mr. Swartz before he showed them to anyone else. Mr. Swartz outlined his views in the manifesto: “It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.” And he said the stakes were clear: “We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks.” Still, even many of his allies concede that Mr. Swartz’s passion for free information may have taken him too far in the Jstor downloads. According to the government’s indictment, in September 2010 Mr. Swartz broke into a computer-wiring closet on the M.I.T. campus; when retrieving a computer he connected, he hid his face behind a bicycle helmet, peeking out through the ventilation holes. At the time, he was a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at nearby Harvard. Some would say that perhaps a punishment for trespassing would have been warranted, but the idea that he could have seen serious prison time was infuriating. Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard Law professor who founded Creative Commons to advocate greater sharing of creative material online, called the prosecution’s case absurd and said that boxing in Mr. Swartz with an aggressive case and little ability to mount a defense “made it make sense to this brilliant but troubled boy to end it.” E.J. Hilbert, a former cybercrimes investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that the broader issues around such activist transgressions raise many complex questions that are subject to “a lot of discretion from prosecutors.” He added that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts has long been renowned for a particularly aggressive pursuit of cybercrimes. Jstor, for its part, declined to pursue the case and posted a note over the weekend describing Mr. Swartz as “a truly gifted person who made important contributions to the development of the Internet and the Web from which we all benefit.” Michael McCarthy, a 30-year-old animator from Providence who was also at the M.I.T. vigil, said Mr. Swartz was let down by the university. “If places like M.I.T. aren’t safe for people to be a little miscreant in their quest for truth and understanding, then we’re in a lot of trouble,” he said. It’s unclear how much the impending case contributed to Mr. Swartz’s decision to take his own life. Years back, he wrote about his struggle with depression in his blog, Raw Thoughts. The last post he wrote on that blog, in November, was a detailed analysis of the final installment of the “Batman” series. Having warned his readers that he was about to reveal the conclusion of the movies, he ended the post by writing: “Thus Master Wayne is left without solutions. Out of options, it’s no wonder the series ends with his staged suicide.” Jess Bidgood and Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: January 14, 2013 An earlier version of this article misstated Aaron Swartz’s academic role at the time of the events at M.I.T. that led to his indictment. He was a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard; he was not a Harvard student. A diagram for defeat: assessing the Iraq Study Group's report By Michael Young Daily Star staff Saturday, December 09, 2006 It doesn't take long to see that the Iraq Study Group report, released on Wednesday by a bipartisan band of old Washington sages, reads like a poor newspaper editorial. Truffled with hopeful "shoulds and "musts," redolent with high Establishment piousness, it sets ambitious aims, but offers relatively few practicable means to implement them. However, this is not the whole story. The ISG members have long marinated in political craftiness. By the end of the 100-odd page report, you will wonder if we've all been had for taking the document so literally. In fact, co-chairmen James Baker and Lee Hamilton have handed us two things: an awkward map out of the current mess in Iraq; but also a barrage of covering fire to justify why the United States need not linger there for much longer. The report sets myriad benchmarks that the Bush administration, or any successor, might readily point to as not having been implemented when explaining why it is time to go. The report opens on the low side. "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved." The authors call "for new and enhanced diplomatic and political efforts in Iraq and the region, and a change in the primary mission of US forces in Iraq that will enable the United States to begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly." In parallel to this, the Iraqi government is told that it must advance national reconciliation, guarantee basic security, and deliver essential services. Lying in ambush is a threat: "If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones on national reconciliation, security, and governance, the United States should reduce its political, military, or economic support for the Iraqi government." This switches on one of many warning lights in the ISG report. The Bush administration has recently done what anyone who screws up does: It has shifted the blame elsewhere, onto the Iraqi government. It takes considerable imagination to overstate the merits of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, however the new American tactic of treating Iraq as dead weight the US could really do without is a bit thick after more than three years of occupation and the administration's mismanagement of the reconstruction process. The ISG fails to rectify this. It blackmails the Iraqis by giving them a choice between implementing ISG guidelines and being abandoned - with the likelihood that civil war will ensue. But if that's Baker's and Hamilton's gambit, it does not square with this passage in the report: "Iraq is vital to regional and even global stability, and is critical to US interests. It runs along the sectarian fault lines of [Shiite] and Sunni Islam, and of Kurdish and Arab populations. It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves. It is now a base of operations for international terrorism, including [Al-] Qaeda. Iraq is a centerpiece of American foreign policy, influencing how the United States is viewed in the region and around the world. Because of the gravity of Iraq's condition and the country's vital importance, the United States is facing one of its most difficult and significant international challenges in decades." If Iraq is all this, then does it make sense for the US to abandon the country if its leaders don't play ball? Does the Bush administration have that luxury? The answer is no, which points to a fundamental flaw in the report: It prepares the exits in Iraq, but also convinces us why getting out might be a disaster. Worse, the US depends on the Iraqis to create the successful context for its departure. Success isn't much of an option, as the ISG authors have already informed us, so what we're left with is a cornucopia of vague thoughts, where it's unclear who or what defines the destiny of US forces in Iraq. Is it the Iraqis? Is it the possible backlash of an "irresponsible" American withdrawal? Is it American morale, handicapped by a realization that the US is caught in a losing war? This fuzziness is reinforced by a contradiction when the authors discuss a timetable for a pullout. They insist, "The point is not for the United States to set timetables or deadlines for withdrawal, an approach that we oppose." Yet that is precisely what the report later does, albeit surrounded by a bodyguard of caveats: "By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq." This is classic bureaucratic hedging, handing ammunition to both sides in the debate. The administration will highlight the conditionality of the ISG's 2008 deadline in order to buy itself some wiggling room; the "get out of Iraq quick" crowd will emphasize the date. Baker and Hamilton will stress one or the other depending on their audience. That's safe, but it doesn't bring the US any closer to a comprehensible strategy. The deadline issue runs hand in hand with another crucial ISG recommendation, namely that the US military effort be turned toward enhancing training and support for the Iraqi Army and security forces, among whom more US soldiers should be embedded. That's hardly an original idea, however, being a variation on President George W. Bush's promise that "as Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." The twist is that while "Iraqization" will suck in more US soldiers, the payoff is that more soldiers will leave, even if the report, pointedly, avoids addressing troop levels. http://www.dailystar.com.lb This leads to another slapdash segment in the text - on the disarming of militias. If the Americans are in a mindset of drawing down their forces, how easy will it be for the Iraqi government to disband the country's militias - which requires national reconciliation? By now, the authors have told us that both Kurds and Shiites are uneager to engage in such reconciliation, and that "there are many armed groups in Iraq, and very little will to lay down arms." What they have not told us, however, is that the possibility of the militias' changing their minds will only be diminished by the prospect of an American departure, which could leave behind a dangerous vacuum that Iraqis would need weapons to fill. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government is to be held accountable for this failure. Another cornerstone of Baker's and Hamilton's strategy is the creation of a regional Iraq Support Group as part of a so-called New Diplomatic Offensive. "The United States should immediately launch a new diplomatic offensive to build an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region. This diplomatic effort should include every country that has an interest in avoiding a chaotic Iraq, including all of Iraq's neighbors." Much gnashing of teeth was provoked before the report's publication because Baker, in a television interview, advocated talking with Iran and Syria on Iraq. The premise of the ISG report, as the above passage makes clear, is that none of Iraq's neighbors wants to see the country dissolve into sectarian war. The authors err, however, in giving this hypothesis absolute merit, with little appreciation for the complexity of Iranian and Syrian interests in Iraq. If a civil war is so frightening, then it doesn't explain why Syria has systematically destabilized Iraq by funneling foreign Sunni jihadists into the country to murder Shiites - increasing the chances for full-scale sectarian warfare. The same can be said of Iran, which continues to arm both of the main Shiite militias, despite the fact that they have been involved in countless rampages of sectarian killing. Something is plainly lacking in the ISG's rational reckoning of Iranian and Syrian intentions. For one thing, Baker and Hamilton ignore that Iran's stated goal in Iraq is to get the Americans out of the country - and perhaps the region. In an embarrassing understatement, the authors describe the US-Iranian relationship as "problematic," and virtually undercut their own argument for engagement by admitting that the Iranians are "likely to say they will not participate in diplomatic efforts to support stability in Iraq." Tehran would be amenable to chatting up the US all the way to Iraq's door, but that's different than what the ISG members have in mind. They're not looking for an American rout in the Middle East; Iran is. Similarly, the report's passage on Syria is so anemic, so unpersuasive, so shaky for being loaded down with an ancillary recommendation that the US help resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict as a possible incentive to Damascus, that nothing will come of it, at least for now. In truth, the battle was always going to be tough. Bush rejected the idea of dealing with Syria some weeks ago, and the recent death of Lebanese Minister Pierre Gemayel, probably the work of the Syrians or their allies, further damaged what little legs the initiative had. What those who want to engage Syria cannot comprehend is that its regime thrives on exporting instability. For President Bashar Assad, normalcy in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon would deny Syria a role as regional playmaker, while also forcing the Syrian leader to dismantle the vast security edifice that keeps him in power. Some will defend the ISG report as a reservoir of new ideas. If you can't stomach the whole, look at its parts. There are two problems with this. First, the authors see their proposals as interconnected, not to be picked at selectively, which is why their plan is so tremendously rigid. And second, few of the ideas are original, even if some are rather good. Other than a final sequence of detailed administrative and judicial recommendations, too much of the ISG's advice is conventional generalization. That's because all Baker and Hamilton ever intended to give Bush was a diagram for defeat, a device for him to go down without losing face. Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR. Printable Version Send to a friend The Conundrum of the Pro-Hamas Peaceniks Posted By David Meir-Levi On December 8, 2011 @ 12:13 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments The freedom-loving humanitarians who profess to defend the egalitarian values that are the cornerstone of civil society in the West are usually strong proponents of the rights enshrined in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including: Equality of persons, without distinction of race, color, sex, language, religion, political opinion, national origin, sexual preference. The right to life, liberty, and security of person. Freedom from slavery. Freedom from torture and from cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. Equality before the law and equal protection of the law. The right to enter into marriage as free and consenting adults. Freedom of thought, conscience, opinion and religion. Freedom to manifest one’s religion. Freedom to change one’s religion. Islamic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, el-Qaeda, Hizb ut-Tahrir and many others promote a social order which is an anathema to the liberal values of the West. These characteristics include: Eternal Jihad: the commitment to unending violence to make Islam the sole or dominant religion in the world. Jihad is central to the prosecution of a perpetual war against all non-Muslims. Imperialism: the jihadist goal of world conquest and the imposition of Islam on all humanity is religiously motivated imperialism on steroids. The Muslim terrorist leaders of Hizb ut-Tahrir held a conference in Boston in 2009 announcing their plan to replace Western governments with Shari’a law…. “Islam uber Alles.” Supremacism: Arabs are the “best of people” (Qur’an, Surah 3:110) and Islam is the only true religion. Triumphalism: an end-of-days scenario in which Islam ultimately triumphs over all mankind, displaces or subordinates all other religions, annihilates all Jews, and globally imposes Muslim rule. Totalitarianism: Islam is, by its own definition, a totalitarian religion, obligating its adherents to complete submission to Shari’a. Theocracy: The core of Islamic political history is the supremacy of Shari’a over any other form of government. Islam demands that political rule be in the hands of the religious leaders to whom any secular leader must be subordinated. Gender Apartheid/Misogyny: The deeply misogynistic repression of women is an irrefutable part of Muslim social history, a tragic and gut-wrenchingly brutal assault on women. The indignity and inconvenience of the hijab and burqa, the restricted opportunities for education, and restrictions of a woman’s right to chose her mate are dwarfed by the savagery of honor killings, female genital mutilation, forced child (and even infant) marriages, stoning or vivisepulture as punishment for even the suspicion of adultery, and acid disfigurement or violent beatings for even the accidental appearance of a woman’s ankle in public. Religious Apartheid: The Muslim doctrine of “dhimma” is the institutionalization of legislated religious apartheid. All non-Muslims living under Muslim sovereignty are subject to oppressive, discriminatory laws. These non-Muslims, legislated into a legal status of inferiority, are known as “dhimmi” (people of the contract or “protected people”). Whatever limited rights dhimmi might enjoy were determined by the local Muslim religious leaders, in exchange for jizya (a poll tax), in accordance with the limitations delineated in the eighth century Pact of Omar. Most Muslim countries in modern times have tended to be lax in the enforcement of dhimma, but it was officially reinstated in Iran after the Islamic revolution in 1979. Pakistan re-instituted dhimma officially in 1956. Genocide: Leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been unabashedly clear that their ultimate goal is the annihilation of world Jewry. Hamas and Fatah officials have repeatedly declared that their objective is the obliteration of Israel. Hassan Nasrallah stated openly: “If (the Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” In their own words they declare their commitment to the genocide of all Jews worldwide. Other characteristics of Shari’a law in stark violation of human rights include the legalization of slavery; the implementation of cruel and unusual punishments such as amputation, beheading, and crucifixion; death sentences for homosexuals; denial of freedom to convert out of Islam; denial of freedom to manifest a non-Muslim religion in public; and denial to dhimmi and women equality before the law. Typical of some Arab regimes and terrorist groups are the use of torture, arbitrary arrest, restrictions on freedom of expression, limited or non-existent freedom of the press and other media, total disregard for the Fourth Geneva Convention and humanitarian treatment of prisoners; and the ability to issue unadjudicated death sentences against civilians who are perceived to be enemies of the religion. Perhaps most horrific of all is their use of their own civilians as human shields and their recruitment, training and deployment of homicide bombers, including children. One might conclude that any defender of human rights would find such a society to be utterly odious, an anathema — but some do not. The “Stop the War” coalition in London proudly hoisted banners during their street demonstrations in 2006 proclaiming “we are all Hezbollah now.” The UK Guardian deemed these demonstrators to be “…either of profound ignorance or a depraved indifference to human life…” and displaying a “moral idiocy.” Dr. Norman Finkelstein televised his solidarity with Hezbollah in 2007 by echoing the “Stop the War” coalition’s pronouncement with even greater moral idiocy. Clearly not ignorant, is Finkelstein possessed of a depraved indifference to human life? He is not the only academic displaying moral idiocy or depraved indifference. In the Arab-Israel conflict we see an oxymoronic alignment of supposedly principled, educated defenders of human rights with the most egregious violators of democratic principles and human rights. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is possessed of all of the deplorable characteristics listed above, and demonstrates as well a long track record of extreme kleptocracy, corruption, unconstrained education of children into hatred and “martyrdom,” relentless anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate speech and hate preach, lethal internecine rivalries, lionization of homicide bombers and mass murderers, extreme and sometimes lethal homophobia, and an unconstrained hatred of Israel and America. The so-called “Freedom Flotillas,” organized by the “Free Gaza Movement” and the “Free Palestine Movement,” seem to have attracted a whole gaggle of putative defenders of human rights who instead defend the right of Hamas to display all the odious characteristics described above. Greta Berlin, one of the first flotilla’s participants, is an energetic, vocal supporter of Hamas. Huwaida Arraf and Adam Shapiro, long-time pro-Palestinian activists who support Arab terrorism against Israel, were also among the organizers of the flotillas, along with Kit Kittredge, Medea Benjamin and Hedy Epstein, all well known anti-Israel activists. So their participation is no surprise. But what about Pulitzer Prize winner and human rights advocate Alice Walker? She went because she sees “children, all children, as humanity’s most precious resource.” Does she not know that Hamas rockets have targeted school busses and classrooms? She claims to care for “all children” — does she really mean “all except Israeli children?” One might argue that some participants, like Walker, are sincere defenders of human rights who seek only to assist the impoverished civilians of the Gaza Strip; and they have been duped by Hamas. But how could they not know that from the very onset the flotillas’ declared mission of humanitarian aid was transparently false because there is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip? Moreover, established and efficient mechanisms exist for the transfer of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. Cargo could be off-loaded at the Egyptian port of el-Arish. Assistance could also be delivered at the Israeli port of Ashdod, cargo off-loaded and inspected, and then delivered to Gaza. As the terrorist nature of the 2nd flotilla emerged, and it became known that the key organizer of flotilla 2, Mohammed Sawalha, had ties with Hamas, and two other members of the flotilla’s “peace activists,” Amin Abu Rashad and Mohammad Hannoun, were Hamas members, the IHH, itself a Muslim terrorist organization and the primary organizers of the flotilla, disassociated from the endeavor; and many participants left the group before the boats set sail. But what about those who remained? Why do people who represent themselves as non-violent defenders of human rights cast their lot with organizations that flagrantly deny human rights and unabashedly trumpet their intentions to perpetrate acts of terror, war and ultimately genocide? Why do they pledge their allegiance to terrorist institutions that represent the very epitome of all that they say they oppose? Even if there were some doubt as to the motives and goals of the flotillas and their organizers, Adam Shapiro, a spokesperson for “Free Gaza” and a well-known anti-Israel activist, announced publicly the real purpose of the flotillas: “Free Gaza is but one tactic of a larger strategy, to transform this conflict from one between Israel and the Palestinia­ns, or Israel and the Arab world…to one between the rest of the world and Israel…” By setting sail with those who support mass murder and engage in genocidal war, these so-called non-violent defenders of human rights display their obscene hypocrisy. These supposedly noble supporters of western values have chosen to join the ranks of the 21st century’s version of Hitler’s little helpers. Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here. To get the whole story on why leftists worship death cults, read Jamie Glazov’s book, United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror. Drug Middleman Plans Hostile Bid for Rival Article Tools Sponsored By By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN Published: December 18, 2006 In an audacious takeover bid that could lead to lower drug prices for consumers, a company that manages employee drug plans will make a $26 billion hostile bid for a much larger rival, according to people briefed on the offer. The bid by benefits manager Express Scripts for rival Caremark Rx tops a competing offer by the CVS drugstore chain in a bold move that evokes memories of the big buyout deals of the 1980s. Pharmacy benefit managers act as the middleman between drug companies and employers that offer drug subsidies to their workers as part of health-care coverage. By acquiring Caremark Rx, which is double its size, Express Scripts would by far become the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the nation. Together they would have even more clout when negotiating prices with drug makers for clients, typically big corporations and their employees. The deal would also save the combined company as much as $500 million a year by reducing overlapping costs. Both pharmacy benefit managers and drug makers are under increasing pressure to keep drug prices low from all sides. Prices offered at the pharmacy counter have also come under threat in recent months by Wal-Mart, which said it would offer certain generic drugs for $4. The takeover bid seeks to scuttle Caremark Rx’s agreement last month to merge with CVS, the second-biggest drugstore chain in the country. That deal was expected to transform the drug industry. Spokesmen for Express Scripts, Caremark and CVS could not be reached for comment. The four largest prescription benefit mangers — Caremark, Medco Health Solutions, Wellpoint and Express Scripts — handle about 75 percent of the $235 billion spent on prescription medicines every year. The takeover bid comes amid a record-setting year for mergers. As of the beginning of this month, there have been $3.3 trillion worth of deals in more than 32,000 transactions, according to Thomson Financial. Not since the days of the corporate raiders of the 1980’s, as captured in films like “Wall Street” and books like “Barbarians at the Gate,” have deal makers been so central in reshaping corporate America. The bid will pit Express Scripts, with a market value of $9.3 billion, against the much-larger CVS, worth some $25 billion, in a battle over Caremark Rx. It is possible that a bidding war could ensue, with both suitors ratcheting up their offers. Any deal could face scrutiny from regulators in Washington. The offer by Express Scripts is a throwback to the 1980’s in two ways: it is a rare hostile bid that could spark a fierce bidding war, and it relies heavily on debt, some $14 billion. Buyers do not like to get into bidding wars: they can get expensive quickly and they can drive away important employees and customers, eroding the value of the business they want. Even as merger activity has accelerated, the number of deals in the United States that had two or more bidders has fallen sharply this year, according to Thomson. But companies are increasingly willing to use debt in deals. The $26 billion offer is a vivid illustration of the role that cheap credit is playing in fueling the explosion in takeovers. Historically, low interest rates and a flood of available cash have enabled private equity firms to buy out bigger and bigger companies. In those cases, the firms typically put up a quarter or so of the value of the company and borrow the rest, planning to use the companies’ revenues to pay off the loans. And even as the amount of debt used in these deals has risen to record levels, investors have stayed sanguine that the risks of default are low. Now, Express Scripts is using the same weapon employed by private equity and leveraging itself or borrowing against the combined company to try to win Caremark. Other companies have also drunken deeply from the debt pool: the mining giant Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold is essentially borrowing $15 billion to pursue its $25.9 billion takeover of Phelps Dodge. The takeover bid by Express Scripts is being orchestrated by its chief executive, George Paz, who joined the company in 1998, as senior vice president and chief financial officer before becoming president in 2003 and then chief executive in 2005. Before Express Scripts, he was a partner at the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand and then executive vice president and finance chief for Life Partners Group. It is unclear how investors will react to Express Scripts’ offer. Express Scripts had widely been considered a takeover target, not an acquirer, because of its small size. Indeed, its bid for Caremark could also put it into play. Kemp Dolliver, an analyst at Cowen & Company, wrote in a research note after the CVS-Caremark announcement that Express Scripts could be bought by Walgreen, Wal-Mart or Aetna. The proposed merger between CVS and Caremark received a mixed reception by investors. When it was first announced, shares in both companies tumbled, but they have returned to close to where they started after the deal. In that deal, Caremark received no premium for its shares. Shares of Caremark closed Friday at $50.30. Under the proposed offer by Express Scripts, Caremark shareholders would receive just shy of $58.50 a share in Express Scripts stock and cash, people briefed on the offer said, representing a 22 percent premium. Exact terms of the breakdown between stock and cash could not be learned. Under Mr. Paz, Express Scripts has made several acquisitions, most recently acquiring Priority Healthcare Corporation for $1.3 billion in cash in July 2005. Express Scripts, with some 13,000 employees, was formed in 1986 and went public in 1992. The company is based in Maryland Heights, Mo. In 2003, New York’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, began an investigation into claims that Express Scripts had over billed the state’s health care plans. In 2004, Mr. Spitzer sued the company in state court in Albany for breach of contract. Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting. April 25, 2008 Lawsuit!: Brokers Have No Room for the Kids 0804renterskids.jpgA class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court yesterday, alleging that real estate firm "Brown Harris Stevens Brooklyn LLC (BHS) and its senior vice president and two real estate agents discriminate against families with children attempting to rent apartments in Brooklyn." Park Slope parents, and even soon-to-be stroller pushers, may be having a hard time finding the perfect brownstone. Seems Brown Harris Stevens, and other real estate agents (see: Craigslist), are discriminating against the little tykes of New York. The release we received from the plaintiff's lawyer, Mariann Meier Wang, stated: The lawsuit alleges that in 2006 and 2007, BHS real estate agents refused to show apartments for rent or to negotiate with Jamie Katz and his wife, Lisa Nocera, because they were expecting and then had a child. The Katz/Nocera family alleges they were told by two different BHS agents with rental listings that the owners of available apartments in Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope would not rent to a family with a child. One agent is alleged to have said, “I’ll show you everything available that I think is suitable for kids.” From there, the Fair Housing Justice Center (a nonprofit group) sent testers posing as prospective renters, both with and without children. Surprise, surprise, those sans children were shown apartments that parental renters were not allowed to see. The NY Times got in touch with one of the families who owned a home in question, and while they are not part of the suit, they stated that they never told the firm they did not want children, and in fact ended up renting their apartment to a family. The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of “all persons who have or will seek rental properties through BHS to inhabit with a child or children under the age of 18.” Their hope is that the court will find "that the defendants have engaged in illegal housing discrimination, requiring the defendants to take all necessary steps to prevent future discrimination, and providing damages pursuant to the federal Fair Housing Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, and the New York City Human Rights Law." Park Slope stroller photo via John-Paul Pagano's Flickr. By Jen Carlson in News | Link | Comments (14) | Recommend this! (5)Loading... | * [+] o add to del.icio.us o add to digg o add to yahoo o related at technorati Tags: Brooklyn, Brown Harris Stevens, children, class action, discrimination, kids, lawsuit, real estate, rental, renters Email This Entry To: From: Message (optional): Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below! Click Here! Comments (14) [rss] Avatar zodac By zodak [1] | 04/25/08 12:42PM more evidence that apartment brokers are scum & should be outlawed. Avatar Josh By JMH [2] | 04/25/08 12:43PM Yeah, because THAT'S the worst thing that brokers do. Avatar By starrygordon [3] | 04/25/08 01:04PM "Park Slope" / "No children" -- isn't that a contradiction in terms? I thought you had to have 2.2 kids (all above average), several $500 dollar strollers (the kind with tank treads), and an SUV to get in. Avatar By nycbiker [4] | 04/25/08 01:06PM the times articles states that it was the property owner that didn't want to rent to families with children. assuing that's the case (and dont get me wrong, i hate brokers just as much as the next girl), what choice does the broker have??? Avatar By NYer [5] | 04/25/08 01:12PM Our coop doesn't allow stollers in the lobby, that's how you keep out children. Avatar Matty By matty [6] | 04/25/08 01:30PM "what choice does the broker have???" the only choice you do have is to drop the client and report him to the Federal Government. If you don't you automatically lose your license and are fined a huge amount of money. You don't fuck with the Federal Fair Housing Act. Avatar By Snoopy [7] | 04/25/08 01:52PM Shouldn't that dumpster be written up? It is overloaded and the top isn't down. What has this city come to? Avatar By UrbanCowgirl [8] | 04/25/08 02:15PM Personally, I think most PETS are cleaner and less obnoxious and noisy than children...and pet friendly apartments are getting super hard to come by. On the other hand, with rents, deposits and broker fees as ridiculously high as they are, it makes me gag to know that we still have no real rights when it comes to any rental. As much as it sucks, the lawsuit is probably a waste of time and money. I'm not sure about rental laws, but I know that Co-op boards can discriminate however they please when appraising candidates for board approval. Avatar natalie By rockypocky [9] | 04/25/08 02:28PM this discussion is so much different than brownstoner's: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/04/oh_baby_class_a.php#comments where people are actively defending the broker and all the power that they and landlords uphold. Avatar By babyhitler [10] | 04/25/08 03:00PM I personally hate kids. I mean they are fine for the first ten minutes and then I'm like "get the hell out of my face!" Avatar Matty By matty [11] | 04/25/08 04:12PM It's not a question of defending. The licensing laws are clear on this. The brokers should have known better. This is a federal law and the biggest no no in the real estate world. Avatar By BMMDan [12] | 04/25/08 04:39PM i dont think anyone expected/assumed differently from you, babyhitler. Avatar Mike By Mike D [13] | 04/25/08 08:02PM They definitely broke the law and I'm not trying to be provocative, but shouldn't private property owners be able to decide who they want to rent to? I'm glad for tenant protection laws but sometimes I think the Federal Fair Housing Act goes a little too far. Avatar By Snoopy [14] | 04/25/08 09:07PM Baby Hitler has never tried kids broiled with a hint of sea salt. He just doesn't get out enough and explore. Post a comment (Comment Policy) You must be logged in to comment. Please Register Today sign in Username: Password: 2003-2008 Gothamist LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy. We use MovableType. Site Meter Linspire Chairman Frustrated By Futility Of Desktop Linux, Rebuts Carmony Michael Robertson says Microsoft's imposing lead in the desktop market means Linux should look to next-gen devices for growth. By Charles Babcock, InformationWeek July 3, 2008 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208802569 Michael Robertson, chairman of Linspire, said the assets of his company were sold to Xandros after "years of frustration in trying to achieve the goal of desktop Linux." Robertson couldn't disclose the terms of the deal with Xandros, a rival Linux distributor, but said Linspire's Click'N'Run download technology would fit in well with Xandros' own bid to establish Linux on end-user machines. To date, its biggest success has been on the Asus Eee PC, a small notebook with long battery life and a low price tag from Taiwanese laptop maker Asustek Computer. It comes with either Xandros Linux or Windows XP. "Trying to compete with Microsoft on the desktop has been a futile effort. What the last 20 years has shown is that the Microsoft ecosystem goes far beyond Windows" into thousands of drivers for PC devices and applications to run on end-user machines. For Linux to match that may be impossible, he said. But next-generation devices, including the Asus Eee PC, smartphones, and other mobile devices may yet prove a lucrative end-user market for Linux. "Linux has to look at new markets," he said. Robertson also addressed former Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony's call for a stockholders meeting after the sale to consider distribution of Linspire assets. Many Linspire employees bought stock in the company through stock options, Robertson said. Carmony claims there are still 100 such stockholders in existence. Robertson said Linspire assets resulting from the sale will be divided among stockholders, as with any other company sale. But he also warned that Linspire's preferred stockholders were at the head of the line, having provided the money that financed the startup of Linspire. Carmony and other purchasers are not holders of preferred Linspire stock, he said. He had no comment on why Carmony left the company July 31, 2007, other than to note he had "resigned abruptly." Carmony has called for a stockholders meeting, but Robertson said Delaware law, under which Linspire was chartered, only requires a majority of the stockholders to approve the sale, not a public meeting on the sale or a higher-than-majority vote in favor of selling. No stockholders meeting is in the works, he said. Linspire once went by the name Lindows and has existed as a company for six to seven years. Its 10-person engineering staff is still located in Linspire's former San Diego offices and will remain there as part of Xandros, said Robertson. Linux.com Everything Linux and Open Source Desktop Linux strategies for marketplace success May 03, 2008 (2:00:00 PM) - 2 days, 16 hours ago By: Carlton Hobbs What strategy is needed to really spread desktop Linux to average home users? Here are some ideas that just might work. Journalist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols argues that Linux businesses, for the most part, don't do marketing. I think they're extremely foolish not to spend any money on it, but there it is.... Like the Linux companies, many of them were sure that they didn't need to market themselves. Like Linux companies, they thought word of mouth was enough.... Well guess what: it's not. Without marketing, no one from the outside looking in can tell one Linux from another. They just see a confusing mish-mash of names, and unless they're already really motivated, they're going to start turning off from Linux at the very start. I argue almost the opposite. A large part of mainstream media marketing, advertising, and branding is a means to get name recognition at a very superficial level. Its main targets are people who make superficial buying decisions, and for the right products, this works. Why buy name brand Tylenol vs. generic acetaminophen, name brand cereal, or a thousand other identical products that come off the same assembly line but use different packaging at different prices? From the perspective of the thrifty, the main answers are ignorance and brand recognition. Of course, not all marketing is to compete with effectively identical products. Consider the American beer industry as a major marketing powerhouse with a few similarities to the Windows vs. Linux market. The major American breweries formulated modern beers after Prohibition to appeal to people who didn't like the taste of beer, and as a side effect the major brewers accepted, these beers taste bad to beer connoisseurs. The post-Prohibition era, even to this day, retains elements of a cartelized liquor distribution industry designed to make it difficult and expensive to compete with the major breweries, such that there have been no new domestic majors in decades. The rebirth of real beer in America was through microbreweries that have small to non-existent marketing budgets. They rely on beer connoisseurs who communicate through beer fan reviews, word of mouth, willingness to experiment, and seeking out the minority of stores that actually carry microbrew and local beers. Beer commercials for microbrews about sports and sexy women would not get many beer drinkers to seek out good beer that isn't already easy to find. Such commercials are just for "all beer is beer" drinkers who are susceptible to brand association marketing and herd opinion. This doesn't mean that high-cost marketing is innately wrong or bad. It means that if you can increase the marginal sales of your high-profit-per-sale product to people who make quick decisions based on brand recognition, then your marketing expenses were a good investment, but otherwise not. Unfortunately for Linux companies, desktop Linux is a very low profit per "sale" product that is not an impulse choice off a shelf of interchangeable consumer goods. As Red Hat learned years ago, the shrink-wrapped box on a store shelf will not change the current OS market. So if word of mouth and near-zero-budget advertising are our main prospects, then perhaps what is needed is a better person-to-person strategy. Fortunately, there is definite room for improvement here. One major barrier to entry is lack of Linux preinstallation, and the occasional need for more expertise with compatibility issues. Desktop Linux must partly resolve these challenges through its internal advantage of strong community by strategic and expansionary networking, and by using the big opportunity of failure to address the massive number of PCs that people keep collecting dust, thinking they will upgrade sometime, someday. Desktop Linux must focus on local communities for recruiting the next wave of users and evangelists. Ubuntu has the right idea with its LoCo initiative. However, to get really local and networked, a distro-centric local community is not the most efficient. If local Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, etc. users never meet, they will forfeit great networking opportunities. There needs to be local GNU/Linux/FOSS communities with broad ranges of software experience, occupations, contacts, and distro preferences. Fortunately, many already exist, and there is at least one list where people can find groups near them. Linux promoters must recognize face-to-face personal interaction as a primary means for strategic growth of desktop Linux. Local free software organizations need to be able to offer free Linux installation and encourage people to reuse or donate computers that would run poorly with current Windows systems. Certain groups are naturally good targets to recruit and possibly join as recruiters themselves. Decentralist political groups, neighborhood associations, Parent Teacher Associations, and other educational organizations are also intelligent low budget groups. College groups, homeschool groups, agriculture co-ops, churches, and religious groups are all great places to find people who have spare computers to reinvigorate or donate, or would be willing to have a computer set to dual boot. In general, groups that depend on donations or have small budgets are looking for ways to minimize unnecessary costs. Some of their members would likely be radicalized when they learn what little is required to show others how to switch to Linux. Local free software organizations need a quick and easy tool to communicate what the GNU/Linux OS can do. Perhaps the best method would also serve as a means of introduction. An organization could create business cards that provide a brief description of the local Linux group, its Web address, and purpose. The card should be visually impressive and colorful. They can let people know that the card itself was designed with only free software, whether it be OpenOffice.org, gLabels, Inkscape, Scribus, or some combination that anyone could easily get through Linux. Is there a model for such success without advertising budgets? Ask yourself how you heard about and started using Google. Was it through advertising? Google became a giant because the barrier to trying a new search engine was so low and the value quickly obvious. It was used by almost everyone before anyone saw a Google advertisement. If Linux advocates can do the same, then Windows will be in trouble. I don't see how this can happen without active local free software groups that seek out growth, and success would likely be in proportion to the efficiency of local groups. If some are more successful than others, then the more successful local methods could be adopted elsewhere. All the experience and networked knowledge of local free software cooperatives might be enough that small businesses would hire the local groups to upgrade their computer systems to Linux for real money. Local groups could even have contracts with particular distros that provide paid business support to receive some of the profit. Local cooperatives would not likely make much money, but maybe enough on occasion to purchase a few rounds of quality microbrews to celebrate a few more people unshackled from Goliath-soft. Very few people will get rich with Linux, but a lot of people could be meaningfully less poor with it, and free-as-in-freedom might actually buy the enjoyment of a few free-as-in-beers. Read in the original layout at: http://www.linux.com/feature/134126 Live Free or Pie Print this article Print ShareThis Send a Letter to the Editor An animal-rights activist wriggles free from a legal trap. By Dash Robinson Oct. 6 - 12, 2000 (Vol. 20, #40) An animal-rights activist wriggles free from a legal trap. Arathi Jayaram took a quick peek around the crowded conference room inside the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Two thousand attendees, escaping the late-May humidity, sat attentively as Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman strolled to the podium to kick off something called the National Nutrition Summit. Jayaram, in keeping with the spirit of the day, carried her own nutritious treat: the tofu cream pie she had made earlier that morning. Pie tucked under her shirt, Jayaram left her fourth-row seat and strode onstage to within 3 feet of Glickman, somehow unhindered by hotel security. She cocked her arm and fired, point blank. The pie flew toward Glickman, who managed to turn his back. "Shame on you, Dan Glickman, you meat pimp!" Jayaram yelled. Security officials promptly carried her from the hall; globs of goo clung to Glickman's suit. Jayaram tells the story with pride. An activist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), she disrupted the D.C. conference to protest what she perceives as Glickman's excessive support of the U.S. meat and dairy industries. "As a group that supposedly focuses on health, they do quite a bad job," says Jayaram, describing the Agriculture Department. "I decided to make a statement that some people care about eating well." The activist, of course, had expected to pay a price for making that statement. She spent the night in jail, charged with misdemeanor assault on a cabinet officer. In June, Jayaram pleaded guilty to the charge, and U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Alan Kay sentenced her to two years of probation and community service. Last month, though, Virginia officials threatened Jayaram—an Old Dominion resident who had come to D.C. only to attack Glickman—with one further consequence of her pie toss: a shotgun wedding. Because Jayaram lives in Norfolk, her probation was shifted, upon her conviction, to the court system there. And that's where her current troubles began. PETA's may be a modern cause, but this particular case ran smack into a piece of 17th-century legislation. On Sept. 6, during a standard visit with probation officer Anna Hodge, Jayaram learned that she could go to prison for something she considers a basic right: living with her fiancé, Luke Downing. Hodge informed Jayaram that by living—and, presumably, sleeping—with Downing, she violated an obscure Virginia law against fornication. Because Jayaram was on probation for the pie incident, Hodge said the commission of any other crime—no matter how rarely enforced—could land Jayaram in jail. Hodge's ultimatum was cruelly simple: tie the knot, move out, or go to jail. "We were both in disbelief," Jayaram said from Norfolk, before coming back to the District for an Oct. 2 hearing on her case. "It's ironic that a state that legalized recreational hunting will not permit us to be in a loving relationship." As activists committed to waging war on the meat industry, the couple never expected that something so conventional as cohabitation could land them in hot water. Downing, a senior majoring in finance at Old Dominion University, met Jayaram while volunteering for PETA in November 1998. "It's hard, because we're both so busy, and we don't have a lot of money," says Downing. "But we were adjusting pretty well" to sharing an apartment. Jayaram waxes melodramatic in complaining about being handcuffed after the pie incident, but she seemed genuinely incredulous about the quandary she and Downing faced. And her biggest problem with the potential nuptials seemed anything but radical: "It'd be a shame if we had to get married immediately," said Jayaram late last month. "Our families would not be able to attend." As unappealing as a hasty marriage seemed, though, Downing says that moving would have been worse. The couple settled into their new apartment on Aug. 26, after signing a one-year lease. "The move itself was horrible," Downing said the week before Monday's hearing. "I don't think we could go through that again. If it came down to it, we would get married." Virginia's legislative code is no place for the faint of heart. Rife with sentiments that trace back to the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, the state's laws sometimes lend themselves more to colonial thought than modern justice. That is, when judges actually enforce them. "There are many laws on the books that should just be removed," says Andrew Sacks, a Norfolk criminal-defense attorney, "although many are not harmful, because judges just don't pay attention to them." Fornication laws, on the books in Virginia since 1661, generally fall into that category. "That law is often used as a cop-out for rapists," says Sacks. "It's a bone the defense can throw to the jury if evidence is inconclusive but they still want to convict on some grounds." Ordinarily, consensual sex between unmarried Virginians is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum $250 fine. But because Jayaram is on probation, her case is different. If she breaks any Virginia law, she violates her probation and could go to jail for the incident with Glickman—even though her probation itself stems from a sentence handed down in fornication-friendly D.C. "This is a case of selectively enforcing a law, which is very unfair," says Phillip Hirschkop, Jayaram's lawyer. "And the law itself is ridiculous." Says Sacks, "Virginia needs to get into the 21st century on this matter." Law experts don't see that ever happening. "This statute will never get repealed," says W. Hamilton Bryson, professor of law at the University of Richmond. Bryson, who's been teaching at Richmond since 1973, says he had never before heard of the fornication law being enforced as it was with Jayaram. "That law is so rarely used in a damaging way that it's not worth repealing it," Bryson says. "And there are political ramifications for speaking out against it, since you'd be antagonizing the religious leaders whose predecessors implemented it in the first place." If there's going to be a cause célèbre that forces Virginia to toss out its lifestyle laws, it won't be Jayaram's. On Monday, Kay took Jayaram's marital future out of the probation officer's hands by accepting Jayaram's request to change her parole status. "What we're aiming for is unsupervised probation, which will let the couple maintain their current living situation," said Hirschkop two days before leading his client into U.S. District Court. Kay OK'd the idea, making Jayaram's probation unsupervised—which means that she and Downing no longer have to report to some nosy probation officer. Jayaram, though, looked a bit overwhelmed during the 20-minute hearing. She shuffled through the courtroom, head down, nodding timidly while Kay reminded her that she will still have to file monthly reports with the probation office in Easton County, where Norfolk is located. And Kay took yet another chance to reproach Jayaram for her tofu-tossing, if not her sleeping arrangements. "Let me make it clear to you that this court considers your actions to be of a very serious nature," Kay said to Jayaram. Afterward, Jayaram, Downing, and Hirschkop quietly celebrated their victory in the courthouse's first-floor hallway. Jayaram's eyes gleamed through her black-rimmed glasses. Standing barely 5-foot-2, she pulled her yellow sweater closed and smiled sheepishly. "I'm just glad it's over and that the judge was reasonable," she said. Downing stood a bit aloof, grinning. Hirschkop, meanwhile, put the decision in context. "It's a good way for the court to save face and let my client move on," he said. "This is what I expected all along." He had apparently forgotten to tell that to Jayaram, who still looked a little shellshocked by her brush with state-ordained matrimony. For whatever reason, the Jayaram standing in the courthouse corridor wasn't the same Jayaram whom PETA president Ingrid Newkirk lavishes with praise. "The pie incident was pure vaudeville, and that's a great way to reach people," says Newkirk. PETA—with 700,000 members, the country's largest animal-rights organization—loves activists like Jayaram, who last January teamed up with Downing to protest Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's support of New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Sitting in the front row at a city hall news conference, the two shot out of their seats and began flinging paper money in the air, denouncing the mayor for selling out to a company that PETA alleges treats animals cruelly. The two were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. "The majority of our activities never result in arrest," admits Newkirk, who says that Jayaram is one of PETA's feistier employees. "But it's a great way to get attention." Right now, Jayaram—who still works in PETA's literature department—just wants to start focusing her attention elsewhere. "I have devoted much of my time to securing rights for animals," Jayaram says. "Now I want to make sure no one has to go through what I just did." The opportunity may arise sooner than she expects: Jayaram will spend her remaining 280 hours of community service working with Norfolk's drug-addicted youth, to whom she'll be able to give a firsthand account of why it's a good thing to stay off Virginia probation. CP Podcast: Getting Started with Online Storage for Backup Exec In this podcast, Symantec Product Manager Darren Niller provides a step by step overview of the process on getting started with Symantec Online Storage. Download the podcast. » Featured on the Symantec Windows Backup Solution Center Featured in the eBook Library for Technology Professionals Managing the Modern Network Sponsored by HP In a global economy where Web-based applications power business, it's more important than ever to ensure your network is safe from threats and optimized to deliver the data your business needs. Download this eBook to learn how networks are evolving and network management solutions are keeping pace. Click here. Current Newswire: Bill Gates' Disdain for Open Source Even in Retirement Something to Really Bake Your Noodle What Sun Was Trying to Do with Open Solaris Programming Languages: Everyone Has a Favorite One Red Hat-Ubuntu Pairing Would Have Potential Ubuntu Launchpad for Affero? Linux Foundation Reports Highlights from Annual Collaboration Summit Nokia Internet Tablets Get Ubuntu and Qt Ksplice Automates Hot Patching Linux Kernel with No Reboot Needed SECURITY: Study: 70 Percent Say Red Hat More Secure than Windows Linux Today is not responsible for the content of the message below. Ruben I Safir - Subject: Re: Boycott Strategy ( Feb 13, 2000, 02:26:11 ) Hello Everyone - I've given this a lot of thought over Shabboes (The Jewish Sabbath). It has definitely pervaded my dinner table. About 3 in the afternoon, it occurred to me that the real threat of the DMCA is not just that we can't play DVD's with Linux, or that the media it's is controlled by a ogonopoly of Media Giants, or that the future libraries in the the world are going to locked up for the privileged few and information is going to be controlled to a degree of stifling the free speech needed needed for the democratic process, what is a greater threat is that we are going to FURTHER loose control of our ability of present ideas and contribute to our society in meaningful ways. Rap Music, (which I hate) started in the basements of ghetto minorities, on the street. Without the ability to tape Rap music, and distribute it on cassette, which was the Rap media of choice in it's formative years of the early 1980's, it would have never seen the light of day. When theaters of the near future abandon traditional film, which is probably long overdue, for digital media, how is independent film makers going to MAKE films that people can see without projectors. If you don't have a legally acquired encryption key, you can not use the media media of choice for people to CREATE new works.To quote the fictional Character Hilton "Hammerhead" Kreiger, "The Plex supplies "em with conventional weapons, vidunits (currency) and American Plexpress Cards - (The Gangs) know the rules - No Aircraft, No Nukes, No combat in commercial zones -- and of course NO Suburban Adventurism (in their gang warfare). (In return the Plex gets back) Only the Highest raded Vidshow on 3 planets... the Plex makes a fortune in AD Revenues (and gambling bets). To control the content presented to the masses this severely is to control the education and reference of discussion discussion for future generations. Two of the most empowering thing to happen to mankind in civilized history is the development of the Printing Press, putting inexpensive books in the hands of millions, and the Internet, which makes worldwide publishing and communication inexpensive and instantane I have been one stupid dude over that last few years. I've watched technology after technology destroyed over the last decade by the wishes of media giants, and have allowed myself to be strung along by the media ous.industry and the computer software industry into apathy. I thought we were moving to a state of technological freedom with increasingly sufficticated hardware and software which improves presentation and creation, facilitating freedom of expression. Boy was I wrong, and a light is now going through my consciousness similar to the one that occurred the first time I joined a Compuserve Forum in the mid eighties, or the first time I ran Linux on my desktop and realized it works better than Windows, or the first time I got feedback from a Website I created. I'm realizing that what is the current status quo, as it is being presented to the public by large corporations, and the press, is actually a HINDRANCE to innovation and freedom of thought. The Internet was an Accident of the Government. Left to Corporate America, it would never had arrived. I an now communicating to a few hundred people using a technology -email invented over 3 decades ago and which came into the public mainstream only 2 years ago in a major way. Digital media has had to live with CDRW which is inferior to the Digital audiotape killed as a consumer product in the mid eighties. And the only computer system which can assure that people a free to innovate new products and software, is being threatened to it's core by the DMCA. All Intel has to do (and this is not to pick on Intel which I believe is one of the better companies out their in terms of fairness), is to put an encryption around the Bios of a computer which permits only licensed OS's to run on it, and anything like a future Linux is dead before it begins. After all this consideration, I jumped on the net this evening, and sure enough, it's like the entire community is working through this problem in the same way, and drawing the same conclusions. http://linuxtoday.com/stories/16556.html "What CSS lets the consortium do is determine who will make players, and on what terms, and who will provide content. If you can neither enccrypt or decrypt the bit stream, you are locked out of both markets. If you purchase a license to use the technology, then the consortium has a way of controlling your actions. Want to sell a player that doesn't honor region codes?. Hmm, maybe we'll revoke your license. Or maybe yes, of course, but you gotta charge three grand for it." This is EXACTLY what is happening, and what is instore for us in the future. This combined with AOL's announcement that they are no longer lobbying for open access on cable networks for all internet sites, means that the forces of business are making an increased power grab for control of access to information and services, which in turn destroys the free market economy and our person freedom. I am not happy enough to just join a Boycott, and petition a court room. We, the members of the Linux Community, and the open/free software movement, need to mature and take our seat of with the great powers of the world. We need a LOBBYING GROUP. We need to not only protect the rights of main stream American's and World citizens to innovate and communicate, but to lay down the legislative and policy agenda of the next hundred years to ensure that we are not victims of technology, but it's beneficiaries. Marriage: America.s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty Published on September 16, 2010 by Robert Rector Backgrounder #2465 Abstract: Child poverty is an ongoing national concern, but few are aware that its principal cause is the absence of married fathers in the home. Marriage remains America.s strongest anti-poverty weapon, yet it continues to decline. As husbands disappear from the home, poverty and welfare dependence will increase, and children and parents will suffer as a result. Since marital decline drives up child poverty and welfare dependence, and since the poor aspire to healthy marriage but lack the norms, understanding, and skills to achieve it, it is reasonable for government to take active steps to strengthen marriage. Just as government discourages youth from dropping out of school, it should provide information that will help people to form and maintain healthy marriages and delay childbearing until they are married and economically stable. In particular, clarifying the severe shortcomings of the .child first, marriage later. philosophy to potential parents in lower-income communities should be a priority. Child poverty is an ongoing national concern, but few are aware of its principal cause: the absence of married fathers in the home. According to the U.S. Census, the poverty rate for single parents with children in the United States in 2008 was 36.5 percent. The rate for married couples with children was 6.4 percent. Being raised in a married family reduced a child.s probability of living in poverty by about 80 percent.[1] (See Chart 1.) Marriage Drops the Probability of Child Poverty by 82 Percent Some of this difference in poverty is due to the fact that single parents tend to have less education than married couples, but even when married couples are compared to single parents with the same level of education, the married poverty rate will still be more than 75 percent lower. Marriage is a powerful weapon in fighting poverty. In fact, being married has the same effect in reducing poverty that adding five to six years to a parent.s level of education has.[2] Decline in Marriage and Growth in Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing Regrettably, marriage is declining rapidly in the U.S. The current decline is unusual. As Chart 2 shows, throughout most of the 20th century, marital childbearing was the overwhelming norm in the United States. Nearly all children were born to married couples. Death of Marriage in the U.S., 1929-2008 For example, when President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, 93 percent of children born in the United States were born to married parents. Since that time, births within marriage have declined sharply. In 2007, only 59 percent of all births in the nation occurred to married couples. The flip side of the decline in marriage is the growth in the out-of-wedlock childbearing birth rate, meaning the percentage of births that occur to women who are not married when the child is born.[3] As Chart 3 shows, throughout most of U.S. history, out-of-wedlock childbearing was rare. When the War on Poverty began in the mid-1960s, only 6 percent of children were born out of wedlock. Over the next four and a half decades, the number rose rapidly. In 2008, 40.6 percent of all children born in the U.S. were born outside of marriage.[4] Growth of Unwed Childbearing, 1929-2008 Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing Not the Same as Teen Pregnancy Out-of-wedlock births are often confused with teen pregnancy and births. In fact, few out-of-wedlock births occur to teenagers. As Chart 4 shows, of all out-of-wedlock births in the United States in 2008, only 7.7 percent occurred to girls under age 18. Three-quarters occurred to young adult women between the ages of 19 and 29.[5] The decline in marriage and growth in out-of-wedlock births is not a teenage issue; it is the result of a breakdown in relationships between young adult men and women. Few Unwed Births Occur to Teenagers A Two-Caste Society In 2008, 1.72 million children were born outside of marriage in the United States.[6] Most of these births occurred to women who will have the hardest time going it alone as parents: young adult women with a high school degree or less. As Chart 5 shows, more than two-thirds of births to women who were high school dropouts occurred outside of marriage. Among women who had only a high school degree, slightly more than half of all births were out of wedlock. By contrast, among women with at least a college degree, only 8 percent of births were out of wedlock, and 92 percent of births occurred to married couples.[7] Less-Educated Women Are More Likely to Give Birth Outside of Marriage The U.S. is steadily separating into a two-caste system with marriage and education as the dividing line. In the high-income third of the population, children are raised by married parents with a college education; in the bottom-income third, children are raised by single parents with a high school degree or less. Unwed Childbearing, Single Parenthood, and Child Poverty The rise in out-of-wedlock childbearing and the increase in single parenthood are major causes of high levels of child poverty. Since the early 1960s, single-parent families have roughly tripled as a share of all families with children. As noted, in the U.S. in 2008, single parents were six times more likely to be poor than were married couples. Not surprisingly, single-parent families make up the overwhelming majority of all poor families with children in the U.S. Overall, single-parent families comprise one-third of all families with children, but as Chart 6 shows, 71 percent of poor families with children are headed by single parents. By contrast, 74 percent of all non-poor families with children are headed by married couples.[8] 71 Percent of Poor Families With Children Are Not Married Both Marriage and Education Reduce Poverty The poverty rate among married couples is dramatically lower than the poverty rate among single-headed households, even when the married couple is compared to single parents with the same level of education. For example, as Chart 7 shows, the poverty rate for a single mother with only a high school degree is 31.7 percent, but the poverty rate for a married-couple family headed by an individual who is only a high school graduate is 5.6 percent: Marriage drops the odds of being poor by 80 percent.[9] Both Marriage and Education Are Highly Effective in Reducing Child Poverty in the United States Being married has roughly the same effect in reducing poverty that adding five to six years to a parent.s education has. Interestingly, on average, high school dropouts who are married have a far lower poverty rate than do single parents with one or two years of college. Welfare Costs of Single-Parent Families The federal government operates over 70 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and targeted social services to poor and low-income persons.[10] In fiscal year 2010, federal and state governments spent over $400 billion on means-tested welfare for low-income families with children. Roughly three-quarters of this welfare assistance, or $300 billion, went to single-parent families. Most non-marital births are currently paid for by the taxpayers through the Medicaid system, and a wide variety of welfare assistance will continue to be given to the mother and child for nearly two decades after the child is born. Racial Differences in Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing Out-of-wedlock childbearing varies considerably by race and ethnicity. To understand this, it is important to understand the difference between an out-of-wedlock birth rate and the out-of-wedlock birth share for a particular racial or ethnic group. The out-of-wedlock birth rate for a particular group equals the total number of out-of-wedlock births to mothers of that group divided by all births to the group in the same year. Thus, if 50 babies were born outside of marriage to Hispanic mothers in a given year and total births to all Hispanic mothers (both married and non-married) in the same year were 100, the out-of-wedlock birth rate for Hispanics would be 50 divided by 100, or 50 percent. Chart 8 shows the out-of-wedlock birth rates for different racial and ethnic groups in 2008. The out-of-wedlock birth rate for the entire population was 40.6 percent. Among white non-Hispanic women, the out-of-wedlock birth rate was 28.6 percent; among Hispanics, it was 52.5 percent; and among blacks, it was 72.3 percent.[11] Unwed Birth Rates Vary Strongly by Race By contrast, the out-of-wedlock birth share equals the total number of babies born to non-married mothers of a particular racial or ethnic group divided by the total number of babies born outside of marriage for all racial and ethnic groups. Thus, if 50 babies were born outside of marriage to Hispanic mothers in a given year and total out-of wedlock births to mothers from all racial and ethnic groups were 150, the out-of-wedlock birth share for Hispanics would be 50 divided by 150, or 33.3 percent. Chart 9 shows the out-of-wedlock birth shares for different racial and ethnic groups.[12] Although black and Hispanic women are more likely to give birth out of wedlock than are white non-Hispanic women because non-Hispanic whites are far more numerous in the overall population, the greatest number (or plurality) of out-of-wedlock births still occurs to that group. Of all non-marital births in the U.S., some 37 percent were to non-Hispanic whites, 31 percent were to Hispanics, and 26 percent were to black non-Hispanic women.[13] Non-Marital Birth Shares by Race Growth in Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing Among Blacks and Whites. Historically, the black out-of-wedlock childbearing rate has always been somewhat higher than the white rate; however, through much of the 20th century, the rates for both groups were comparatively low. For example, as Chart 10 shows, 2 percent of white children and 14 percent of black children born in 1940 were born out of wedlock. Growth of Unwed Childbearing by Race, 1930-2008 These rates remained relatively low until the onset of Lyndon Johnson.s War on Poverty in the early 1960s. Then the black out-of-wedlock birth rate skyrocketed, doubling in little more than a decade from 24.5 percent in 1964 to 50.3 percent in 1976. It continued to rise rapidly, reaching 70.7 percent in 1994. Over the next decade, it declined slightly but then began to rise again, reaching 72.4 percent in 2008. The white out-of-wedlock birth rate followed a similar but less dramatic pattern. It remained almost unchanged at around 2 percent between 1930 and 1960 and then began a slow but steady rise in the 1960s that accelerated in the 1980s, reaching 20 percent by 1990. It slowed in the 1990s but then resumed its upward rise. In recent years, it has been increasing at a rate of 1 percent per annum, reaching 28.6 percent in 2008.[14] Marriage and Poverty Among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. Marriage is associated with lower rates of poverty separately for whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Within each racial and ethnic group, the poverty rate for married couples is substantially lower than the poverty rate for non-married families of the same race or ethnicity. For example, as Chart 11 shows, in 2008: * Among non-Hispanic white married couples, the poverty rate was 3.1 percent, while the rate for non-married white families was seven times higher at 21.7 percent. * Among Hispanic married families, the poverty rate was 12.8 percent, while the poverty rate among non-married families was three times higher at 37.5 percent. * Among black married couples, the poverty rate was 6.9 percent, while the rate for non-married black families was seven times higher at 35.3 percent.[15] Marriage Reduces Poverty for Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks Corroborating Data from the Fragile Families Survey The Census data presented so far demonstrate that married couples have dramatically lower poverty rates than single parents. These substantial differences in poverty remain even when married couples are compared to single parents of the same race and level of education. The pattern is almost exactly the same in all 50 states. However, in the Census comparisons, the married couples and single parents are obviously different (albeit similar) persons. It is therefore possible that much of the difference in poverty between married families and single-parent families might be due to hidden differences between married and single parents as individuals rather than to marriage per se. For example, it is possible that unmarried fathers might have substantially lower earnings than married fathers with the same racial and educational backgrounds. If this were the case, then marriage, for these men, would have a reduced anti-poverty effect. Fortunately, we have other direct data on poverty and unmarried parents that corroborate the Census analysis. These data are provided by the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Survey conducted jointly by Princeton and Columbia universities.[16] The Fragile Families survey is a representative national sample of parents at the time of a child.s birth, with a heavy emphasis on lower-income unmarried couples. The survey is unusual in collecting information not only on single mothers, but on non-married fathers as well, including (critically) the actual employment and earnings of the father in the year prior to birth. Because the Fragile Families Survey reports both the mothers. and fathers. earnings, it is simple to calculate the poverty rate if the non-married mothers remain single and if each unmarried mother married her child.s father (thereby pooling both parents. income into a joint family income). The Fragile Families data show that if unmarried mothers remain single, over half (56 percent) of them will be poor. (This high level of poverty will persist for years: Half of all unwed mothers will be poor five years after the child is born.[17]) By contrast, if the single mothers married the actual biological fathers of their children, only 18 percent would remain poor.[18] Thus, marriage would reduce the expected poverty rate of the children by two-thirds. It is important to note that these results are based on the actual earnings of the biological fathers of the children and not on assumed or hypothetical earnings. Moreover, the non-married fathers in the sample are relatively young. Over time, their earnings will increase and the poverty rate for the married couples will decline farther. The Lifelong Positive Effects of Fathers Census data and the Fragile Families survey show that marriage can be extremely effective in reducing child poverty. But the positive effects of married fathers are not limited to income alone. Children raised by married parents have substantially better life outcomes compared to similar children raised in single-parent homes. When compared to children in intact married homes, children raised by single parents are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems; be physically abused; smoke, drink, and use drugs; be aggressive; engage in violent, delinquent, and criminal behavior; have poor school performance; be expelled from school; and drop out of high school.[19] Many of these negative outcomes are associated with the higher poverty rates of single mothers. In many cases, however, the improvements in child well-being that are associated with marriage persist even after adjusting for differences in family income. This indicates that the father brings more to his home than just a paycheck. The effect of married fathers on child outcomes can be quite pronounced. For example, examination of families with the same race and same parental education shows that, when compared to intact married families, children from single-parent homes are: * More than twice as likely to be arrested for a juvenile crime;[20] * Twice as likely to be treated for emotional and behavioral problems;[21] * Roughly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school;[22] and * A third more likely to drop out before completing high school.[23] The effects of being raised in a single-parent home continue into adulthood. Comparing families of the same race and similar incomes, children from broken and single-parent homes are three times more likely to end up in jail by the time they reach age 30 than are children raised in intact married families. [24] Compared to girls raised in similar married families, girls from single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to have a child without being married, thereby repeating the negative cycle for another generation.[25] Finally, the decline of marriage generates poverty in future generations. Children living in single-parent homes are 50 percent more likely to experience poverty as adults when compared to children from intact married homes. This intergenerational poverty effect persists even after adjusting for the original differences in family income and poverty during childhood.[26] Understanding the Cultural Context of Non-Marital Pregnancy and Childbearing Clearly, the rise in unwed childbearing and the decline in marriage play a strong role in promoting child poverty and other social ills. Dealing with these issues will require an understanding of the social context of non-marital pregnancy and childbearing. The best source of information on this topic is Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Mothers Put Motherhood Before Marriage by Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas.[27] Edin, professor of public policy at Harvard, is the nation.s most distinguished researcher on low-income single mothers; her findings overturn much conventional wisdom about .unintended. pregnancy, out-of wedlock childbearing, and low-income single parents. In popular perception, out-of-wedlock childbearing occurs as a result of accidental pregnancies among teenage girls who lack access to or knowledge about birth control. This perception is completely inaccurate. In reality, unwed births rarely involve teenage girls, are almost never caused by a lack of access to birth control, and generally are not the result of purely accidental pregnancies. * As noted previously, only 8 percent of non-marital births occur to girls under 18. Non-marital births and pregnancies are phenomena that mainly involve young adult men and women. * Research on lower-income women who have become pregnant outside of marriage (either as minors or adults) reveals that virtually none of these out-of-wedlock pregnancies occurred because of a lack of knowledge about and access to birth control.[28] * Out-of-wedlock births are generally not the result of purely accidental pregnancies. In fact, most women who become pregnant and give birth out of wedlock strongly desire children. Their pregnancies are partially intended or at least not seriously avoided.[29] Most Unwed Mothers Strongly Desire Children Kathryn Edin explains that children born out of wedlock are .seldom conceived by explicit design, yet are rarely a pure accident either..[30] Young single mothers typically .describe their pregnancies as .not exactly planned. yet .not exactly avoided... [O]nly a few were using any form of contraception at all when their .unplanned. child was conceived..[31] But this lack of contraceptive use was not due to a lack of knowledge about or access to contraceptives. The overwhelming majority of lower-income women who have children out of wedlock strongly desire to have children. In fact, having children is generally perceived as the most important and fulfilling thing in their lives, giving their lives purpose and meaning. According to Edin, low-income non-married mothers view .children [as] the best of what life offers..[32] Whether planned or not, children .are nearly always viewed as a gift, not a liability.a source of both joy and fulfillment..[33] Low-income single mothers .credit their children for virtually all that they see as positive in their lives.[34] and rely on their children .to bring validation, purpose, companionship, and order to their often chaotic lives..[35] Most low-income non-married mothers see children not merely as desirable, but as a .necessity..[36] Without children, their lives are hollow and chaotic; having children is a .heroic. choice that rescues them from emptiness. For many, parenthood is the point .at which they can really start living..[37] Although most of these young women believe they should wait until they are somewhat older before having children, this belief is weak in comparison to the very strong positive feeling about motherhood in general. Given this emotional context, it should not be surprising that any plans to delay pregnancy are carried out haphazardly or not at all. The Role of Marriage Critically, almost none of the lower-income women who have a child out of wedlock feel that it is important to be married before having children. Although roughly half of non-married mothers were cohabiting with the father at the time of birth (nearly 75 percent were in some sort of romantic relationship with the father), these relationships are usually of short duration and unstable. Mutual understanding and commitment are lacking, and although the couples usually think and speak favorably about marriage, most tend to drift apart after the child is born.[38] However, low-income non-married parents are not hostile to marriage as an institution or a life goal. Ironically, most highly esteem marriage and, in fact, tend to overidealize it. Most low-income young women have traditional family goals; they hope to have a husband, children, a minivan, and a house in the suburbs .with a white picket fence..[39] Tragically, few have a life plan that will enable them to realize their goals. A major obstacle is that most low-income women plan to marry after having children, not before. Their life plan is the exact opposite of the normal sequence in the upper middle class. In the upper middle class, men and women still follow the traditional pattern: A man and woman become attracted to each other; a relationship develops; the couple assess each other and at some point deliberately choose to become lifetime partners; emotional bonds deepen; they marry and after a few years have children. In the lowest-income third of the U.S. population, this traditional sequence of family formation and childbearing is now explicitly reversed. Women first have children and then seek to find or build a stable relationship that will eventually lead to marriage. Typically, low-income single mothers do not see marriage either as an important part of childrearing or as an important element of financial security or upward social mobility. Instead, marriage is seen as a symbolic event that should occur later in adult life. Marriage is regarded as an important ceremony that will celebrate one.s eventual arrival in the middle class rather than as a vital pathway that leads upward to the attainment of middle-class status. Low-income single mothers .believe that marriage, not children, is what requires the years of careful planning and preparation and [that] childbearing is something that happens along the way..[40] While conceiving a child with a man you have known only a few months is not a problem, most non-married mothers believe they should get to know a man steadily for four or five years before marrying him.[41] The idea that you should carefully select a suitable partner and diligently build a successful relationship with him before conceiving a child is a foreign concept. In many communities, the pattern of children first and (hopefully) marriage later is so entrenched that couples have difficulty understanding an alternative; but as a means for building long-term loving relationships and nurturing homes for children, this pattern is a disaster. While low-income young women earnestly dream of having children, a husband, and a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, they have no practical plan to make this dream a reality. Sadly, their choice to have children before marriage and before forming a stable committed relationship with the child.s father usually leads to the opposite outcome, dooming mothers and children to lives of poverty and struggle.[42] In summary, the strong desire to have children coupled with the belief that it is not important to be married before having children explains the dramatic rise in out-of-wedlock childbearing in lower-income communities. While most non-marital pregnancies are not deliberately planned, they are also not seriously avoided. The unfortunate reality is that children are usually born haphazardly to couples in unstable, uncommitted relationships that fall apart a within a few years after their children are born. Unwed Parents Drift Apart Although most non-married parents aspire to remain together and eventually to marry, they generally lack the skill and understanding that are needed to build enduring relationships. Often, a woman will conceive a child with a man well before she has determined whether she regards him as a suitable lifetime partner and before the couple has made serious commitments to one another. Trying to decide whether you want to spend the rest of your life with a partner after you have had a baby with him (or her) rather than before is a recipe for disaster. Frequently, couples will seek to resolve fundamental issues such as sexual fidelity only after a child is born. They fail to understand that these issues should have been resolved at the beginning of the relationship, not in the maternity ward. Even though they aspire to remain together, most unmarried-parent couples also fail to understand the role of commitment to successful relationships. In the real world, all relationships have stressful and troubled periods; successful couples have an enduring commitment to each other that enables them to weather difficult periods and emerge with stronger, happier relationships. In our culture, such strong commitment to a relationship rarely exists outside of marriage. Because they fail to understand the importance of commitment, most unmarried-parent couples tend to fall apart when they hit the difficult periods that are inevitable in all relationships. Do Unwed Fathers Lack Earnings? Some argue that encouraging marriage in lower-income communities is irrelevant because the fathers do not earn enough to contribute significantly to the support of the mother and child. This is not true in most cases. Eight out of 10 unmarried fathers were employed at the time of their child.s birth.[43] Ironically, given the degree to which the earnings capacity of non-married fathers is generally maligned, these men actually earn more than the mothers in the period prior to the child.s birth. If the fathers are economically unprepared to support a family, the mothers are even less prepared.[44] Most non-married fathers have sufficient earnings to help their children escape from poverty. As noted, if women who had children out of wedlock were married to the actual father of their child, their probability of living in poverty would be cut by two-thirds.[45] In fact, over 60 percent of fathers who have children outside of marriage earned enough at the time of their child.s birth to support their potential family with an income above the poverty level even if the mother did not work at all. If the unmarried father and mother married and the mother worked part-time, the typical family would have an income above 150 percent of poverty, or roughly $35,000 per year. In addition, at the time of birth, the fathers are young; their wages can be expected to increase over time and are likely to rise faster if they became married and committed to a family. Is There a Shortage of Marriageable Men? A related argument is that single mothers do not marry because the fathers of their children are non-marriageable. This is a stunning argument given the fact that 40 percent of all children are now born outside of marriage. Are policymakers to believe that 40 percent of young adult men in America are non-marriageable? In reality, while some of the fathers are not suitable marriage partners, most would be. Three-quarters of non-married fathers are still romantically involved with the mother at the time of birth. Among these men, alcohol, drug, and physical abuse are infrequent.[46] While many of the men have potential problems, so do many of the non-married mothers. In most cases, both the men and women would be better off if they were older, more mature, and in a stable, committed marriage before conceiving children. But, this is an argument for encouraging stronger, more mature relationships before conception, not for writing off the men in general. The decline in marriage in low-income communities stems from changing social norms and from a welfare system that for decades has penalized marriage, not from a lack of millions of marriageable men. Unwed Fathers and Marriage Like unwed mothers, most non-married fathers express positive attitudes toward marriage. Many of these young men were raised in fatherless homes and often state that they do not wish the same fate for their own children. But like unwed mothers, these men also attach little importance to being married before having children. They frequently fantasize about having close, long-term, stable relationships with their children and the child.s mother even without marriage. In fact, such an outcome is extremely unlikely. Without marriage, the relationship with the mother is very likely to collapse; over time, the fathers will have little contact with their children and are likely to reach their thirties with lonely and difficult lives. Although unwed fathers tend to view the idea of marriage positively at the time of their child.s birth, they are also aware that marriage will entail restraint and sacrifice. A married husband must relinquish sexual freedom and shoulder heavy financial responsibilities. Becoming a husband means growing up, making a transition from prolonged semi-adolescence to true male adulthood. Like many other men, young unwed fathers view this transition with uncertainty and ambivalence. Historically, society established strong norms and values that supported and encouraged young men in this transition. The role of married father and breadwinner was seen as essential and important. Men who stepped into the role of husband were esteemed in their communities. Today, the historic norms and values concerning marriage and fatherhood have all but disappeared in low-income neighborhoods. In the larger society, opinion leaders treat unwed fathers as socially marginal, an unmarriageable residue of little social or economic significance. To the extent that the fathers are remembered at all, they are seen as largely useless, capable of little more than modest child support payments. The collapse of norms concerning marriage and having children has been a disaster. In marriage, men will usually devote a very large part of their earnings to supporting wives and children; they will be reluctant to make this financial sacrifice unless society tells them it is vital and strongly encourages their embrace of responsibility. Since society no longer demands, expects, or encourages low-income young men to become married fathers, it should be no surprise that these young men experience difficulty in making the transition to married adulthood. The problem is compounded by the fact that most unwed mothers do not seriously plan to be married to the fathers of their children.[47] Without social encouragement or positive role models, many unwed fathers drift through disordered and empty lives. This is a tragedy for the fathers, the mothers, and their children. The Analogy to Dropping Out of School Since marriage appears to be in the long-term interests of mothers, fathers, and children, why do lower-income parents fail to marry? How has the peculiar ethos of .child first, marriage later. evolved in low-income neighborhoods? These are complex questions. The best analogy is to dropping out of school. Completing high school is clearly in the long-term economic interests of individuals. Despite this, hundreds of thousands drop out each year before obtaining a high school diploma. People drop out of school and have children without marriage for similar reasons. For many, finishing school is difficult: it involves having a strong future orientation, delaying gratification, forgoing short-term income, and sticking to educational tasks that may seem unpleasant and boring. Many are unable or unwilling to stick to the difficult path and finish school; they drop out despite the long-term negative consequences. Similarly, delaying childbearing until marriage entails postponing the pleasures of having a child, carefully selecting a long-term partner, exercising restraint by being sexually faithful to that partner, and developing and maintaining a committed relationship. These are not simple tasks. In low-income communities, having a child without marrying is the common choice, the path of least resistance. Many choose this path while failing to appreciate the long-term negative consequences. However, dropping out of school and having a child outside of marriage have one crucial difference. Everyone in our society is told incessantly from childhood on that dropping out of school will harm one.s future; despite this constant refrain, a great many still drop out each year. In bold contrast, young people in low-income communities are never told that having a child outside of marriage will have negative consequences. They are never told that marriage has beneficial effects. The schools, the welfare system, the health care system, public authorities, and the media all remain scrupulously silent on the subject. In the face of this pervasive social silence, it should be no surprise that out-of-wedlock childbearing has become the norm in so many communities. Imagine how high the school dropout rate might be if, for 50 years, lower-income youth were never told that failing to finish school would harm their future. Tragically, on the issue of non-marital childbearing, a deliberate social silence has reigned for almost half a century. Low-income youth have never been told that marriage is beneficial; they have never been told that having a child outside of marriage is likely to have harmful consequences. In this context, it should be no surprise that non-marital childbearing has soared. Foundations of a New Policy As long as the current social silence concerning the benefits of marriage and the harm of out-of-wedlock childbearing persists, marriage will continue to erode in low-income communities. To combat poverty, it is vital to strengthen marriage; and to strengthen marriage, it is vital that at-risk populations be given a clear factual understanding of the benefits of marriage and the costs and consequences of non-marital childbearing. To develop this understanding, government and society should establish a broad campaign of public education in low-income areas. This campaign should be similar in scope to current efforts to convince youth of the importance of staying in school or to inform the public about the health risks of smoking. While the costs of such an effort would be small, its impact could be considerable. If society wishes to slow the growth of non-marital births and pregnancies, then the government must clearly communicate that, on average, having and raising children inside of marriage is more beneficial than having and raising a child outside of marriage. Government should communicate not merely the desirability of delaying childbearing to an older age, but also the advantages of delaying childbearing until one has found a suitable long-term partner, formed a stable and healthy relationship, and, as a couple, made a sincere long-term commitment to each other through marriage. The new pro-marriage message should address the deepest concerns of lower-income young women. Above all else, these women desire to be mothers, but they also desire to be good mothers. The well-being and life prospects of the children they will bring into the world are very important to them. Thus, government should inform lower-income men and women of the positive effects of healthy marriage on the well-being of children. It could then further address the benefits of healthy marriage for adults and society. While there is a voluminous literature on these topics, such information is utterly unavailable in lower-income communities. Going further, the new policy should communicate practical skills in planning children.s births in a manner to meet long-term life goals. It should teach practical skills in selecting suitable partners, in building stable and healthy relationships, and in understanding the role of commitment in sustaining healthy marriages. Given the high esteem with which low-income women and men regard marriage as an institution, this message should fall on a receptive audience, although the idea of delaying childbearing until after marriage will initially be a real shock. Even for those on the left whose only concern is that low-income women complete more education before having children out of wedlock, this policy should prove to be advantageous. Urging young women to select partners carefully, build strong relationships, and marry before having children would (if it has any effect) result in a necessary delay in the age of childbearing in lower-income communities. Policies to Communicate the Truth About Marriage In order to communicate a new pro-marriage message and strengthen marriage in low-income communities, government should undertake the following specific policies. * Encourage public advertising campaigns on the importance of marriage that are targeted to low-income communities. These campaigns should communicate the value of marriage to adults, children, and society. * Provide marriage education programs in high schools with a high proportion of at-risk youth. As noted, most low-income girls strongly desire to have children. They also wish and intend to be good mothers. These young women will be very receptive to information that shows the positive effects of marriage on long-term child outcomes. * Strengthen federal abstinence education programs that provide critical information on the value of marriage to adults, children, and society. These programs already provide some information on the value of marriage to lower-income youth. This message needs to be expanded, not reduced. * Make voluntary marriage education widely available to interested couples in low-income communities. This could be done by expanding the small .healthy marriage initiative. currently operating in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These programs may also provide job training to participants, but that should not be their primary emphasis. * Provide marriage education materials and referrals in Title X birth control clinics. Government-funded Title X clinics operate in nearly every county in the U.S., providing free or subsidized birth control to over 4 million low-income adult women each year. Many clients of these clinics go on to have children out of wedlock within a short period. With 40 percent of children born outside of marriage, it is obvious that a policy of merely promoting birth control is ineffective in stemming the rise of non-marital births. In addition to providing birth control, Title X clinics should be required to offer educational materials on the benefits of marriage and referrals to education in relationships and life-planning skills to clients who are interested. Reducing the Anti-Marriage Penalties in Welfare Another important public policy to strengthen marriage would be to reduce the penalties against marriage in the welfare system. Welfare programs create disincentives to marriage because benefits are reduced as a family.s income rises. A mother will receive far more from welfare if she is single than if she has an employed husband in the home. For many low-income couples, marriage means a reduction in government assistance and an overall decline in the couple.s joint income. Marriage penalties occur in many means-tested programs such as food stamps, public housing, Medicaid, day care, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. The welfare system should be overhauled to reduce such counterproductive incentives. The simplest way to accomplish this would be to increase the value of the earned income tax credit (EITC) for married couples with children; this could offset the anti-marriage penalties existing in other programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid. In addition, the appeal of welfare programs as an alternative to work and marriage could be reduced by requiring able-bodied parents to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving aid. Conclusion: Strengthening Marriage as an Antidote to Poverty Marriage remains America.s strongest anti-poverty weapon, yet it continues to decline. As husbands disappear from the home, poverty and welfare dependence will increase, and children and parents will suffer as a result. Since marital decline drives up child poverty and welfare dependence, and since the poor aspire to healthy marriage but lack the norms, understanding, and skills to achieve it, it is reasonable for government to take active steps to strengthen marriage. Just as government discourages youth from dropping out of school, it should clearly and forcefully articulate the value of marriage. It should provide information that will help people to form and maintain healthy marriages and delay childbearing until they are married and economically stable. In particular, clarifying the severe shortcomings of the .child first, marriage later. philosophy to potential parents in lower-income communities should be a priority. Marriage is highly beneficial to children, adults, and society; it needs to be encouraged and strengthened. Under current government policies, however, marriage is either ignored or undermined. This needs to change. .Robert Rector is Senior Research Fellow in the Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation. WSJ * DECEMBER 12, 2009 McCain Takes Center Stage in Health Fight After Lying Low in Wake of 2008 Presidential-Election Loss, Arizona Senator Mounts Opposition to Obama's Top Priority By NAFTALI BENDAVID and GREG HITT Sen. John McCain kept a relatively low profile for months after he lost the 2008 presidential election to Barack Obama. Those days are over. In the health-care battle, the Arizona Republican has suddenly emerged as the John McCain of old -- a vigorous political combatant. He has publicly hammered Democratic proposals, engaged in heated exchanges on the Senate floor and lent his voice to automated telephone calls pressuring Democratic senators in Arkansas, Colorado and Nebraska on their looming health-care votes. One of the best-known members of Congress, Mr. McCain is giving the party something it had been lacking in the Obama era: a high-profile congressional spokesman on an issue -- health care -- that has consumed Washington. His presence also offers a new potential center of gravity for a party still trying to find its way after bruising electoral defeats in 2006 and 2008. The version of Adobe Flash Player required to view this interactive has not been found. To enjoy our complete interactive experience, please download a free copy of the latest version of Adobe Flash Player here. After losing the 2008 presidential election, John McCain had been mostly silent in his return to Washington. A more-familiar, combative McCain has regained his voice to tussle with Democrats and speak up for the GOP in the Senate on health care. "He's our best-known Republican senator," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who tapped Mr. McCain for the role of party spokesman on health care. "He has a national following. He got a substantial number of votes in a very bad year" for Republicans, Mr. McConnell said, referring to the nearly 60 million popular votes Mr. McCain got as the losing 2008 candidate. Democrats say Mr. McCain is part of a broad Republican effort to kill the health-care bill -- President Obama's top agenda item -- and deal a devastating political blow to the administration. Mr. McCain disagrees, contending that the legislation in its current form is simply bad policy, but he appears to be relishing the political combat. "I've enjoyed it," he said in an interview. "I think the debate and discussion are important." Mr. McCain has championed GOP efforts to oppose the health-care bill on many fronts. For instance, he has denounced AARP, an organization representing older Americans that supports the bill. "Shame on AARP," he said on the Senate floor. He has also decried the influence of special interests in general, complaining that Democrats wrote the legislation with input from health-industry lobbyists. "Call the White House," he said at one point, addressing the public at large. "Say you'd like to have an appointment" to influence what's in the bill, he said. Democrats have returned Mr. McCain's fire. After he criticized their proposed cuts to Medicare, Democrats said he had pushed similar cuts to the program during the 2008 campaign. "This is a huge, big belly-flop-flip-flop," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.). "He'd better get his reasoning straightened out." Mr. McCain responded forcefully, saying he "deeply" regretted Mr. Reid's remark and that the Democrats' proposed cuts had "no relation to what I tried to do in my campaign." Mr. McCain said he doesn't take the back-and-forth personally. "It's been respectful," he said. "Durbin and I go at it almost every day, but we get along just fine." [john mccain] Reuters Sen. John McCain of Arizona talks with reporters in Washington earlier this year. One of the best-known members of Congress, Sen. McCain has become a high-profile Republican spokesman for efforts to derail legislation aimed at overhauling the nation's health-care system. Mr. Durbin agreed. "A number of people have mistaken our combative nature on the issues as something personal. It is not," he said. "John and I are friends." When Mr. McCain decisively lost the 2008 presidential election, some colleagues thought he would return to Capitol Hill and become a leader of Senate Republicans, perhaps serving as a bridge to Democrats on some issues. His history of deviating from conservative orthodoxy, especially on sensitive topics such as immigration, appeals to the independent voters coveted by both parties, and he has regularly worked with Democrats on major issues in the past. This past week, Mr. McCain backed a measure by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.) that would allow the importation of cheaper drugs. Mr. McCain's maverick style and willingness to reach across the aisle has often angered the sort of conservative activists who currently provide much of the GOP's energy. This year, as large Democratic majorities in Congress have sought to move the party's agenda over GOP objections, Mr. McCain has spoken out less as a maverick and more as a traditional Republican. Even as he kept a lower profile prior to the health-care debate, Mr. McCain was sharply critical of various Democratic proposals. He derided Democrats' cap-and-trade plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, for example, though in the past he had supported similar proposals. A spokeswoman for the senator said he believes climate legislation currently before the Senate doesn't do enough to encourage the deployment of nuclear power. Mr. McCain has also criticized Mr. Obama's economic-stimulus plan, saying it has led to wasteful spending. He noted that universities in his home state of Arizona had received stimulus funding to study the division of labor in ant colonies. "I had no idea so much expertise regarding ants resided in the major universities of my state," he told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. —Stephen Power contributed to this article. Write to Naftali Bendavid at naftali.bendavid@wsj.com and Greg Hitt at greg.hitt@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A5 February 23, 2010 Doctor Training Aided by Drug Industry Cash By DUFF WILSON More than half of the nation’s medical residency programs to train doctors in internal medicine accepted financial support from the drug industry, even though three-fourths of the programs’ directors said accepting the aid was “not desirable,” a survey found. At issue are potential conflicts of interest as the residency programs accept drug company support to help train tens of thousands of new doctors at a point in their careers when they are beginning to prescribe drugs, according to the survey report. The article was published Monday in the Web version of The Archives of Internal Medicine. “Program directors are aware of the problem, but right now they don’t have the funds to be free,” Dr. Joanne M. Conroy, chief health care officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, who was not involved in the survey, but had seen the report. The survey, conducted in 2006 and 2007, found that drug companies paid for educational materials like pocket guides in 83 percent of the programs that accepted support, meals in 90 percent, office supplies in 68 percent and drug samples in 57 percent. Medical residency programs in the southern United States were much more likely to accept the industry largess than those in the Northeast — 72 percent to 47 percent. The overall rate of accepting drug industry financing was 55 percent, but that was down from the 88 percent level reported in a 1990 survey. The Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine conducted the survey. Responses were returned by 236 of the nation’s 381 internal medicine program directors, who together train more than 22,000 doctors. Of special note in the survey results, the authors wrote, programs where fewer graduates passed tests from the American Board of Internal Medicine — “one indicator of program quality” — were also more likely to accept the assistance. Dr. Furman S. McDonald, a co-author of the survey report and director of internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic, said it was unclear whether the lower test scores indicated a lack of overall support for the residency programs that took industry money, or a negative effect from the information being imparted by the pharmaceutical industry. “As the pass rates went down,” he said of the new doctors’ test scores, “the odds of accepting pharmaceutical support went up.” Dr. McDonald called for more research in that area. Residency programs in internal medicine typically last three years after medical school, “a particularly formative time for physicians,” the study said. Other surveys have indicated that medical residents do not think that their own actions are influenced by industry gifts, but that they do think that their colleagues are influenced. Surveys have also shown that gifts as small as a pen or food can influence prescribing patterns. Meals are often provided for busy residents during educational presentations. Dr. Martin J. Blaser, chairman of the department of medicine at New York University, said his organization’s internal medicine residency program decided about five years ago to stop accepting food or financial support from industry. “I spend a fair amount of my budget feeding my residents,” Dr. Blaser said, “but then they can learn in a way that is not unduly influenced by who is feeding them.” “Our lunches are not quite as opulent as the lunches they used to have, but they have sufficient nutrition,” said Dr. Blaser, who was not involved in conducting the survey. While 72 percent of the survey respondents said drug industry financing was not desirable, many of those skeptics still took the money, the survey showed. The reason, for two-thirds of the directors who reported taking industry money, was inadequate financing from other sources. They also cited the popularity of drug industry perks among residents in 40 percent of the programs, and encouragement from the administration in 19 percent. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is the one place that could possibly ban such pharmaceutical financing in all medical residency programs, Dr. McDonald said. The survey did not call for a blanket ban, but for more research. The accreditation council declined comment on Monday. Doctors refuse to take bitter no-gift medicine Drugmaker freebies can lead to harm for patients, some say By Bruce Japsen Tribune staff reporter Published April 26, 2007 Whether it be Subway sandwiches for the office staff or reimbursement for continuing education, gifts showered upon doctors by drug- and medical device-makers have become so pervasive that they are a standard part of virtually every U.S. physician's practice. Despite self-policing initiatives launched by organized medical groups and the drug and device makers to curb the cozy relationship between physicians and industry, 94 percent "or virtually all" physicians have at least one type of relationship with the drug industry, according to a study scheduled to be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study indicates that those self-policing initiatives are not always followed. Consumers should care about such relationships because drug companies tend to market the latest and most expensive brand names, and gift-giving can influence prescribing behavior and therefore how much Americans spend on prescriptions, the authors said. Drug marketing and conflicts of interest between doctors and medical product companies have come under congressional scrutiny because of their impact on costs and because of safety issues involving heavily promoted drugs, including Vioxx, the painkiller that was pulled from the market in 2004, nearly two years after studies showed it increased risks of heart attacks. "Relationships with industry are a fundamental part of the way medicine is practiced today," said the study's lead researcher and co-author, Eric Campbell, an associate professor of medicine at the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Campbell said consumers have reason to be concerned about the study's findings. "Would you care if this person was managing your 401(k) and you found out that they had financial relationships with mutual fund companies, or if an umpire was calling the World Series between the Cubs and White Sox would anybody care if the umpires were being paid by either of those two teams?" he asked. "If people would be very concerned that it was happening in a baseball game, you would be even more concerned if it was something like your health." The findings arise from a survey of more than 1,600 practicing physicians in late 2003 and 2004. The survey was conducted at least two years after the American Medical Association launched a high-profile educational campaign for doctors to reinforce ethics guidelines that recommend that any gifts be of nominal value and benefit patients. The AMA guidelines, which are voluntary, say any gifts should "primarily entail a benefit to patients and should not be of substantial value." Subsidies should not be accepted to pay for the "costs of travel, lodging or other personal expenses of physicians attending conferences or meetings, nor should subsidies be accepted to compensate for the physician's time." If physicians accept gifts, they should be worth less than $100 and "benefit patients," the guidelines say. Acceptable gifts include textbooks or drug samples. The study suggests that many doctors do not always follow the AMA guidelines. It notes, for example, that 35 percent of respondents accept reimbursement for continuing medical education or for travel, food or lodging for medical meetings. The drug industry lobby, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said its member companies have worked to eliminate certain relationships and in 2002 established guidelines to curb such sales tactics as golf outings, entertainment and "dine and dash" dinners that drug companies order at restaurants for doctors to pick up for essentially doing nothing. Modest meals for the doctor at his office, however, are OK. "The meals are recognition that the physicians are extremely busy [and] maybe the only time they have to meet is over a working lunch," said Scott Lassman, senior assistant general counsel for the lobby, which includes Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. in its membership. Some doctors say, though, that free samples are needed, particularly in practices where there are a number of uninsured patients who cannot afford drugs. Take Dr. Kristin Coyle, a family physician in Sterling, Ill., who said her patients have been hit hard by unemployment. "We definitely have not only a physician shortage and a lot of people who cannot afford things like drugs -- we are a community trying to rebuild," said Coyle, who has accepted Subway, Applebee's and other drug-company-ordered lunches for herself and her office staff. Coyle said she allows reps to drop off free samples and that they are also allowed to make an educational presentation, such as explaining how a new drug or device works. "Basically, they are not allowed to interrupt my patient activity," Coyle said. Some say, however, that doctors should at least let it be known to their patients that they have a relationship with drugmakers and why it exists. "People have no clue about this," said Jamie Reidy, a former Pfizer sales rep who wrote a book about his experiences selling Viagra and other Pfizer drugs. "They should care," Reidy said. "If they are getting a drug simply because the doc just got back from an advisory board and is pumped full of drug propaganda, that's a problem. But if the doc truly believes Drug X is best for that patient, fine." ---------- bjapsen@tribune.com Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune Medication Errors Course Goal Patient safety has become a major national concern and is due in part to the landmark publication in 1999 of the Institute of Medicine's report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System that illuminated the risks of medical care in the United States. Because of their widespread use, a significant portion of these concerns involve medications. This course is designed for pharmacists practicing in various settings in the healthcare industry. Through this study of medication errors, root cause analysis, error prevention strategies, and patient safety initiatives, pharmacists will recognize their role in the national effort to reduce medical errors, particularly those involving medications, and become aware of methods to achieve this. Objectives At the completion of this program the participant will be able to: 1. Discuss medication errors, their impact, and factors contributing to their occurrence. 2. Explain the role of an organization and the professional in the identification, reporting, monitoring and reduction of medication errors. 3. Recognize error-prone situations. 4. Discuss patient safety practices to improve patient outcomes. 5. Identify medication safety needs of special populations. 6. Describe the processes of Root Cause Analysis and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. Introduction For those of us in healthcare, medical errors are nothing new. The possibility of their existence and their consequences were introduced to us early in our professional education and long before our licensure. Their reality became clear to us from the outset of our professional practices. We know that errors can and do occur at various levels and with diverse significance and outcomes. While our genuine desire to avoid them is consistent, our response to them at the many levels of the health care industry is not. Too often nothing really changes. Mistakes are superficially addressed with contributing procedures and systems left unaltered thus leaving the stage set for the next incident. Frequently, individuals contributing to an error may not even be aware of their role in it. More often, individuals are unjustly singled out to receive blame for matters beyond their control. A cycle of inaction, or nonproductive action, prevails. In November, 1999, a landmark report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) initiated an unprecedented effort to break this cycle. Sobering statistics propelled its recommendations. It declared that it is simply unacceptable for patients to be harmed by the same system that is supposed to offer healing and comfort. Effects of the report were widespread, evoking reaction from the public, from regulatory and governmental agencies, as well as from all segments of the healthcare industry. In the period following its publication its initiatives continue; some high-risk activities have been identified; processes have been researched and modified; monitoring and reporting is evolving. Where this will take us is yet to be seen. As practicing healthcare professionals it is apparent that we have a long way to go. Activities on the front lines of healthcare delivery frequently conflict with those discussed, labeled, and acted on by public authorities. The primary goal of this program, as previously stated, is to help address this conflict. It is intended to make participants aware of the magnitude of the problem and of the many-leveled activities needed to resolve it. It emphasizes the importance of the individual's personal role in the issue, and it describes how they can effectively contribute to its resolution. Why is it important? Statistics The occurrence of medical errors and their associated costs are poorly understood by most. The reasons are many. They include an environment of secrecy characterized by absent reporting and documentation, as well as by a diluted perception of the problem. A disaster involving an aircraft that immediately claims the lives of 200 persons has a more emphatic impact on the public and safety officials than does 200 deaths attributable to medical errors that occur over a greater geographical area and longer period of time. Knowledge of the latter are slow to emerge and difficult to discover. Clearer definition of the problem surfaced with the IOM report To Err Is Human which estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 people die in hospitals each year as the result of medical errors and that as many as 7,000 of those fatalities are due to medication errors.1 While these numbers are impressive, they are likely to be a significant underestimation of the problem. First, the two studies from which the statistics are extracted are believed to offer conservative figures because they were limited to injuries of a specified level of harm, they required a high threshold to determine whether an adverse event was preventable or negligent, and they included only those errors documented in patient records.2 Second, these statistics represent errors in hospitals only. More recently, Barker and colleagues observed a persistence of the problem in defining 19% of doses administered in health care facilities to be in error and 7% rated as potentially harmful.3 Since the IOM To Err is Human report, others in the health care industry outside of hospitals have sought to define and characterize the problem of medical errors in their specific settings. Flynn and colleagues evaluated prescription dispensing accuracy and safety in various outpatient pharmacies.4 They determined there were 4 errors in every 250 prescriptions dispensed (1.6%). This could be extrapolated to 51.5 million errors in the 3 billion prescriptions filled annually. Of these, 3.3 million were characterized as potentially clinically important or having the potential to lead to patient harm or discomfort. The costs associated with these mistakes are also enormous. They extend from the affected individuals to society as a whole. Not only do they result in higher overall health care expenses, but they also cause lost productivity, disability, and increased costs of personal care. Costs associated with adverse drug events (ADEs) in hospitalized patients that were determined to be preventable exceeded $5000 per case and when extrapolated in a case-control study by Bates and colleagues amounted to over $2 billion nationally per year.5 This cost reflects only a portion of the problem and does not address that associated with drug use in other vulnerable settings such as ambulatory, home, or long-term care. What are medication errors? Some health professionals view medication errors simply as an infraction of one of the "five rights": "right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, and right time." This, however, is an over simplification. The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) defines a medication error as "any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use."6 It is important to note that this definition encompasses near misses, a feature that can help identify processes and events before they affect an actual patient. Because medications are used extensively in hospitalized patients and outpatients they are a common type of medical error. Preventable adverse drug events at two tertiary care hospitals were identified, and of these 56% were attributed to error in ordering, 34% in administering, 6% in transcription, and 4% involved dispensing errors.7 Another study showed physicians lack of knowledge about the drug or about the patient to be the main reason for dosage errors.8 When risk factors for preventable adverse drug reactions in patients admitted to medical and surgical units at two hospitals were investigated, few could be identified, which suggested to the authors that improving medication systems would be more effective than acting on patient specific factors.9 Medications are used in a variety of settings. Additionally, multiple professionals and organizations are involved in the use process which includes prescribing, dispensing, administering, monitoring, and systems and management control (Table 1). With errors occurring at any of these steps, multiple interventions on many fronts are necessary to prevent them. Studies have characterized and quantified problematic aspects of the various components of the medication use process and, as previously stated, many factors contributing to errors with medications have been identified. Why do they occur? Causes of medication errors have been identified and classified by many authors. Cohen in his text on medication errors utilizes six categories commonly observed by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) to provide an overview of causes.10 They are 1) failed communication, 2) poor drug distribution practices, 3) dose miscalculations, 4) problems related to drugs and drug devices, 5) incorrect drug administration, and 6) lack of patient education. Failed Communication Failed communication involves both the written and the spoken form. Written failures typically result from illegible or incomplete orders. They commonly involve the use of unfamiliar abbreviations, antiquated systems of measure, and zeros and decimal points positioned such that if the decimal point is obscured by lines on forms or distorted by transmission devices (i.e. faxes, copy machines) the amount is altered. Verbal miscommunication can stem from variation in enunciation and pronunciation, and confusion over drugs with similar sounding names and doses. Additionally, if verbal communication is not promptly reduced to writing, problems associated with recall are introduced. This category of error can be expanded to include deficiencies in knowledge and in faulty interaction with other services. If pertinent information about the patient and the drug is not readily available during the process of ordering a medication, one can consider a failure of communicating this crucial information to have taken place. This would include difficulties in sharing or presenting information from any participant in the medication use process that is required by others to complete their tasks safely and appropriately. A common and not so obvious example of failed communication is the existence and use of erroneous patient profile databases that communicate inaccurate crucial information such as patient weight, height, drug allergies, and medication use. Poor Drug Distribution Practices Redundancies and fail-safes in various procedures serve to identify irregularities or errors prior to the completion of a process. If designed and utilized properly, errors in drug distribution (dispensing, or retrieval) and verification of related crucial information (allergies, doses, etc.) can be identified before they endanger patient safety. Errors from poor drug distribution practices also include mistakes originating from confusion of drugs with similarities such as name, use, strength, or package appearance when they are stored or stocked in close proximity to each other. Realistically, this category could be identified as "poor medication use practices" in that the presence and use of adequate checks and fail-safes at all of the steps of the process should exist. When properly positioned, redundancies and fail-safes should reveal issues such as allergies or incorrect doses at the time of the order and well before access to the drug is even attempted. Dose Miscalculations Dose miscalculations are particularly common with pediatric patients and intravenous medications. In these instances computations are typically more complex. Error risk increases when these calculations are done by individuals having a poor reference or understanding of what is "normal" or "usual" for that size or age of patient, or particular medication. These errors may involve mistaking for whom the order is intended, e.g. John Sr. versus John Jr. or a 3 "mo" versus 3 "yr" patient. Dose miscalculations can happen outside of the dispensing and administration functions in the medication use process. Dosing errors frequently occur at the ordering stage. In a previously mentioned study, the physician's lack of knowledge about the drug or about the patient was identified as the main reason for dosage errors.8 Problems Related to Drugs and Drug Devices Labeling and packaging, both extemporaneous and commercial, have lead to serious medication errors when there is failure to clearly communicate contents or directions. Small print shaded so that it fades into a vial or its contents, or relabeled bulk items that cover identifying, use, or storage information are common occurrences of this problem. Software, such as that used in some pharmacies to calculate complex solution ingredients (i.e. cardioplegia solutions, parenteral nutrition), that is difficult to use and introduces too many variables or units of measure (mcg, mg, G, Kg, mMol, mEq, etc.) can contribute to medication errors. Compounding devices that allow reagent confusion or infusion pumps that are difficult to program or dont protect against free flow are additional examples of errors in this category. Incorrect Drug Administration These mistakes involve wrong patient drug administration and any imaginable confusion in route of administration, e.g. topical preparations given orally, oral preparations given intravenously, suspensions intended for IM injection given intravenously, etc. Misidentification of the patient or confusion with their medication administration record may result in this type of error. Lack of Patient Education Mistaken or inappropriate use of a medication can be the result of inadequate understanding or insufficient information provided by health professionals. Education for select medications of warning signs from excess or toxic manifestations can mitigate some medication misadventures. Teaching a patient to check their pulse before taking digoxin, or informing them of signs indicating excessive anticoagulation are examples here. As with many other functions, increased knowledge by the end user of medications or medical devices, be they nurse, physician, or patient, offers additional redundancies and enforcement at a very crucial step. Contributing Factors A common response to a medication error is to isolate a human "cause" and assert blame. This generally involves identifying a failing party, and if the result of the mistake is particularly bad, doling out an appropriate punishment. The recipient of both blame and punishment is usually the one closest to the event. Two major faults exist with such a response. First, most errors occur as a result of "a chain of events set in motion by faulty system design that either induces errors or makes them difficult to detect."8 Focusing on the individual(s) closest to the mistake is frequently a superficial response that does not address system flaws or contributing factors that allowed the error in the first place, a situation that sets the stage for repetition. Second, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and all other health professionals, being human, make mistakes. These mistakes occur despite how much we care, how hard we work, and how much we know. Consequently, systems that rely on error-free performance by humans are likely to fail. To understand how we humans contribute to error we must appreciate the differences between active and latent errors. "Active errors occur at the level of the frontline operator, and their effects are felt almost immediately. Latent errors tend to be removed from the direct control of the operator and include things such as poor design, incorrect installation, faulty maintenance, bad management decisions, and poorly structured organizations".11 The differences are demonstrated by the following example. Pharmacist RPH enters a physician order for "clopidogrel 75mg po QD" into the hospital computer system. In doing so the quantity is miskeyed resulting in seven 75mg tablets being dispensed and a dose of 525mg po QD printing on the computer generated medication administration record. An example of an active error is the erroneous entry into the computer system resulting in an overdose of a medication. Latent error in this example would include the software design that allowed the dose entry without notifying the operator that it was outside of the usual range and the absence of steps required by the operator to acknowledge this intent. How would you evaluate and respond to this example? Many would focus on the individual and his or her need for additional training and revision of work habits. How effective is such a response in a complex system with many employees each capable of miskeying an order entry? This example offers insight into other differences and consequences between active and latent errors. Latent errors are often unrecognized, and they can contribute to many different active errors. People tend to adapt and work around design defects, which allow flaws to become acceptable. This creates a particularly dangerous situation because warning signals are not recognized. For these reasons latent errors are felt to pose the greatest threat to safety in complex systems such as those typically found in health care. System Contribution Charles Perrow, in his analysis of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, identified how systems can cause or prevent accidents.12 He characterized systems according to their complexity and whether they are coupled loosely or tightly. Complex systems have multiple components that interact, often in unexpected or invisible ways. Specialization, interdependency, and complex communication involving multiple feedback loops characterize them. Coupling is a mechanical term and refers to the slack or buffer between two items or steps in a process. Tightly coupled systems have more time-dependent processes and sequences and are less flexible in how things can be accomplished. Complexity can cause accidents through confusion. Tight coupling lends to quick paced events and makes interception of errors or quick recovery from a mishap difficult. Some have classified health care systems as complex and tightly coupled, and thus prone to accidents.13 Additionally, health care systems can be variable in size, scope, and membership, making them difficult to analyze and understand. System contribution is most important to latent errors. Identifying and fixing latent errors has enduring effects that contribute to the safety of the system. The Human Element Reasons why people make errors have been studied for many years. Cognitive psychologists have explored the way people think. Human-factor specialists have analyzed the interrelationships between humans, the tools they use, and the environment in which they live and work.14 They have applied their findings to improve system and process design. Human mental function occurs in two basic modes, automatic and problem-solving. Each mode has unique errors associated with it.15 Automatic mode, as its label implies functions quickly and requires little conscious effort. This mode draws on one's accumulated learning of situation recognition and response. Errors while in automatic mode are called "slips" and are typically due to distraction and breaks in attention at critical moments. Problem-solving mode requires greater concentration because information must be gathered, processed through comparison to stored knowledge, and then applied to some decision rule. Consequently, problem-solving processes are slower, sequential, demanding, and difficult to sustain. Errors in this mode are referred to as "mistakes". They result from selecting the wrong rule or misapplying the correct rule. Various factors influence mistakes and affect our ability to solve problems. These factors include insufficient knowledge, pattern matching, biased memory, the availability heuristic, confirmation bias, and overconfidence. Lack of sufficient knowledge leaves us with no programmed solution, particularly in an unfamiliar situation, e.g. refilling a methotrexate prescription used for rheumatoid arthritis by a patient that has failing kidneys which leads to accumulation and bone marrow toxicity. Pattern matching involves discovering patterns in situations so that previously thought out responses can be applied, e.g. recognizing a particular drug's dose to be usual or customary for an adult, but failing to realize that it was intended for a 30 pound toddler. Biased memory results from over generalizing and assuming that patterns have universal applicability, e.g. not verifying a potential allergy problem with the physician by assuming Dr. Always wants this patient with a history of severe penicillin allergy to get cefazolin pre-operatively because he always says to do so when he is asked about allergies. The availability heuristic is the tendency to use the first information that comes to mind, e.g. grabbing the "amber" vial to administer a diuretic without realizing you had grabbed a similar appearing multiple dose vial of epinephrine. Confirmation bias involves selection of data that supports the initial thinking and discards that which contradicts or fails to support it, e.g. the label says XYZ, so it must be XYZ even though it doesn't look like XYZ or smell like XYZ. Overconfidence is the tendency to favor the chosen action and evidence that supports it, e.g. expecting a 2gm/250ml NS infusion and 1gm/100ml bolus of procainamide to be prepared after handing the IV technician three 1gm vials of procainamide injection, 1-250ml bag NS, and 1-100ml bag NS and stating "we need a procainamide bolus and drip stat" without realizing all 3 grams were put in the 100ml bag. Factors that decrease attention or create distraction can cause errors in both automatic and problem solving activities.15 These factors may be physiological, psychological, or environmental. Fatigue, illness, loss of sleep, alcohol, and drugs are examples of physiological factors. Psychological factors include various emotional states and distraction from other activities. These can be triggered by external factors such as overwork, interpersonal relations, or other forms of stress. Environmental factors such as temperature, noise level, lighting, and visual activity can cause distraction. Many of these are accepted as a normal part of existing or just how things are without linking them as factors that might cause an error. The cause of error can have many dimensions, can be quite complex, and can result from the convergence of many contributing factors. As with other complex industries, safe healthcare has many requirements such as: good managerial decisions, reliable, functional, and well-maintained equipment; a skilled and knowledgeable workforce; reasonable work schedules and well-designed jobs; and clear guidance on desired and undesired performance. These requirements have been labeled preconditions and their absence or insufficiency can be viewed as latent failures embedded in a system, which through interaction of the system and the production process, can contribute to many unsafe acts.11 Improving Patient Safety - What is being done? Actions to define and correct medication errors existed prior to the IOM report. In 1995, the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) advocated the formation of the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP), an independent body comprised of 25 national and international organizations, to address medication error reporting and prevention.16 The 1998 report of the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry identified medical errors as one of the four major challenges facing the nation to improve health care quality. As recommended by this report, the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC) was established to coordinate quality activities in federal health care programs, the largest purchaser and provider of health care services in the country. The QuIC includes the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Commerce, and Defense; the Coast Guard; the Bureau of Prisons; the Office of Management and Budget; the Federal Trade Commission; and the Office of Personnel Management. The QuIC is charged with coordinating the overall federal response to the IOM's report on medical errors. Federal government activities extended to the private sector with President Clinton's December 1999 memorandum requiring the more than 300 private health plans participating in the Federal Employee Health Benefits program to institute patient safety initiatives. Additionally, federal agencies administering health plans were to evaluate and, where feasible, implement the latest error reduction techniques.17 Health providers are experiencing greater scrutiny and demand for safety improvement by the many oversight organizations, group purchasers, and professional groups. This responds to one of the recommendations by the IOM in its To Err Is Human report as a means to increase external pressure on providers to improve patient safety.1 Government officials at the state level are also interested. Twenty states require some form of medical error reporting. As an example, Florida requires reporting of mistakes that lead to serious patient injuries, such as life-threatening situations and epidemic outbreaks. Another class of reports involves serious adverse events, such as wrongful deaths, brain injuries, wrong limb removals, and incorrect surgeries.18 Additionally, the 2000 Florida Legislature created the Commission on Excellence in Health Care to facilitate the development of a comprehensive statewide strategy for improving health care delivery systems through meaningful reporting standards, data collection and review, and quality measurement. As a further demonstration of their intent to advance this process, legislation (456.013) was passed in 2001 requiring 2 hours of continuing education study on medical errors by all healthcare professionals to qualify for initial Florida licensure and biennial renewal. Other states have subsequently followed with similar requirements. Clearly there is no single or best way to improve patient safety. It is a complex problem that in many ways remains ill defined and, for a variety of reasons, resistant to change. The existence of these qualities was apparent in the IOM's 1999 report and tended to drive its recommendations. The standards set by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and recommendations from the IOM have served as the most influential guidelines directing change for improved patient safety in health care today. Issues and actions identified by them have set the direction for related activities by regulatory, professional, and organizational groups. It is especially important that front line health care participants know and understand these activities because it is at their level where the ultimate goal of improved patient safety is realized. 1999 IOM Recommendations The 1999 IOM recommendations for initiating the move to improve patient safety addressed the following four general areas: * create a national center to oversee and direct medical safety efforts * mandatory and voluntary error reporting * safety performance standards for health care professionals * safe practices at the delivery level Currently, the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) is the primary group within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) serving as a sustainable national driving force for patient safety. The Center is charged with conducting and supporting research on patient safety and health care quality issues, developing and disseminating reports and information, and collaborating with stakeholders to implement evidence-based practices.19 The call, initiated by the 1999 IOM recommendations and continued today, was for current knowledge on how to prevent errors to be identified and acted upon, and efforts to improve our understanding and develop other solutions to be intensified. The expectation of increased reporting is to identify errors and learn from them. This sounds simple, but in reality it is a complex and highly emotional subject that continues to be the focus of significant discussion. Because of reporting deficiencies we probably don't have an accurate grasp of the magnitude of the problem of patient safety. Nevertheless, for those errors we do know about we have failed to consistently bring about an effective resolution because of the way we evaluate and react to them. Through its recommendations the committee attempted to create an environment that encourages error identification, evaluation of their causes, and, finally, action to prevent future occurrences. To accomplish this task a national standardized method of reporting certain errors is to be mandated, and related information (type of errors, analysis, and resolution) is to be shared with the states. Recently, the IOM has provided a report describing a detailed plan to facilitate the development of data standards applicable to the collection, coding, and classification of patient safety information.20 It has also recommended legislation to protect peer review data related to patient safety and quality improvement. With less serious situations it advocates control of legal discoverability to make the environment more conducive for organizations to identify, analyze and report errors. IOM recommendations included establishing performance standards and safety expectations for health care organizations and professionals. Many groups, including regulators, accreditors, public and private purchasers, and professional societies were solicited to encourage this. Perhaps the most obvious response to this recommendation for many of us, are activities within our specific organizations to comply with new safety related JCAHO standards. In an attempt to extend the emphasis on safety to the delivery level, IOM recommendations called for implementation of specific programs in health care organizations and specified clearly defined executive responsibility. To health professionals, particularly those affiliated with hospitals, this recommendation is the most apparent because it spells out comprehensive safety related activities for organizations and the professionals affiliated with them. Its requirements include patient safety programs, non-punitive systems for reporting and analyzing errors, incorporation of well-understood safety principles, and the establishment of interdisciplinary team training programs for providers utilizing proven methods. Additionally, it states that health care organizations should implement proven medication safety practices. The Joint Commission has adopted standards that mirror these requirements. These, coupled with the Commission's Sentinel Event Policy, have stimulated patient safety activity within healthcare organizations so as not to jeopardize their accreditation. JCAHO The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the nations predominate standards-setting and accrediting body in health care, has taken an active role in addressing medical errors. It began tracking sentinel events in 1995. A sentinel event is any unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof.21 Serious injuries specifically include a loss of limb or function. The phrase "or the risk thereof" includes any process variation for which a recurrence would carry a significant chance of a serious adverse outcome. Sentinel event data is used to trend safety concerns and is shared by the Commission to educate other participants. The intent of the Sentinel Event Policy is to address patient safety issues within the healthcare industry by (1) identifying significant medical errors, (2) performing root cause analysis to understand their causes, (3) making changes to reduce future occurrences, and (4) evaluating the effectiveness of those changes. Such activities compose "lessons learned" and are shared for the benefit of all. The Joint Commission produces and distributes a newsletter, Sentinel Event Alert, which informs organizations of sentinel events and how they can be prevented. Reporting to the Joint Commission is voluntary and is encouraged to expand its data base. The policy, however, identifies some functions by organizations responding to sentinel events as being subject to review by the Joint Commission. This means that for certain events the organization is required to perform a suitable root cause analysis, make revisions to prevent future occurrences, and demonstrate plans for evaluating the effectiveness of those changes. Continued accreditation requires that this be done within 45 days of the known occurrence of the event. The Joint Commission advises participants on methods to protect confidentiality and limit the risk of legal exposure of documents related to this process. JCAHO has established multiple standards addressing patient safety in health care organizations in its chapters on Leadership, Improving Organization Performance, Management of Information, Education, Continuum of Care, and Management of Human Resources.22 Leadership's role in patient safety is specifically addressed and it is made accountable for all related activities. Leadership is responsible for integrating and coordinating all patient safety efforts. In 2002 JCAHO streamlined its patient safety requirements of accredited facilities by establishing a select list labeled National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs). Each year an individual goal may be retained, expanded, or replaced by a new priority. The requirements are based on scientific evidence when it is available. In its absence, expert consensus and data from JCAHO's Sentinel Event Database provide the basis for the requirements. National Patient Safety Goals that apply to medication safety for 2004 and those for 2005 are listed in Table 2.23,24 The NPSGs for 2005 list specific requirements for the various types of health care settings, i.e. ambulatory care and surgery centers, office-based surgery, assisted living facilities, behavioral health care settings, critical access hospitals, disease-specific care program, home health care, hospitals, nursing homes, and laboratories. Improving Medication Use Safety - Error Reduction Strategies Opportunities at All Levels The alarming estimates of harm previously described have evoked action at many levels, including policy makers, regulators, third party payers, professional groups, and the public. The current lists of groups and their activities designed to address medical errors is enormous. Under the Federal Department of Health and Human Services alone there are over 13 agencies, departments, programs, and systems involved with this issue.25 Also responding are multiple national, not-for-profit public service organizations such as the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting (Quality Forum), U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy (SHCA), Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and scores of health professional organizations.26 In April of 2004 the formation of SOS Rx, a Senior Outpatient Safety coalition operated by the National Consumers League, was announced.27 SOS Rx's mission addresses patients outside of healthcare organizations and strives to make the use of medications safer for outpatients. Senior citizens, a population at high risk for medication errors, are a primary focus of this organization. With the assistance of more than 60 groups, including consumer and patient safety organizations, professional and employer groups, and government, the coalition's aim is to change consumers' behavior through education, and advocate institutional changes within the health care system. Initially, it is overwhelming to comprehend the scope of existing related activities directed toward increasing patient safety. Nevertheless, through reporting and research, medical error reduction efforts are proceeding everywhere with a renewed commitment to implement what is currently known to increase safety and participation, and to further define problems and their resolution. It is important to realize that this is a very dynamic and ongoing process. Remedies to minimize one error might introduce new opportunities for other errors. In a complex and ever changing system, such as our current healthcare environment, vigilance for their existence and awareness for methods to evaluate will be required to maintain movement in the direction of safety. Front line personnel are in a unique position to observe system irregularities and potential problems before statistics indicating a problem accumulate and are presented to managers to address. Defining the Problem Acknowledging an irregularity through error reporting and then adequately analyzing it for contributing factors is necessary to define a given problem. This process is applicable to all types and categories of errors. The authors acknowledge that formal reporting and analysis would be difficult in every situation. The pharmacist, however, is encouraged to bring to their work environment at least a modified approach to these functions. Errors and near misses need to be communicated to supervisory personnel and co-workers. These are signals of potential future patient harm and awareness of them initiates the process of evaluating for causes. From what we have learned thus far, the obvious or most superficially identified cause is usually not the most important or only reason for an error. Application of some of the techniques used to look beyond the surface will more accurately define the situation and contribute to lasting resolution. Reporting Reporting is a method of discovering preventable adverse outcomes that can then be studied to prevent (or at least minimize) their recurrence. It is the initial step to learning from one's mistakes. Reports can be submitted within an organization (internal) or to an outside agency (external). The appropriate use of two types of reporting, mandatory or voluntary, are deemed necessary for a safe healthcare environment. Mandatory reporting typically focuses on serious faults in performance and serves to promote provider accountability. Providers seek to maintain performance so as to avoid unwanted publicity and possible fines or other disciplinary action. Mandatory reporting also addresses public issues of safety and the public's "right to know" by disclosing serious inadequacies of organizations or professionals. Voluntary reporting is generally done in response to errors that result in minor or no injury, and the information generated is used to alter processes and systems to improve safety. The Institute of Medicine expressed deficiencies with both types in its 1999 report.1 Participation was low and resources necessary to subsequently interpret and act on the information were inadequate. More than one-third of the states impose mandatory reporting of certain medical errors. However, the information they gather is not consistent in terminology or form and consequently is difficult to use by others. The IOM recommended a national mandatory reporting system utilizing standardized information so as to maximize the availability and the quality of this crucial information. The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) has established a standard taxonomy of medication errors to be used in the tracking of errors involving medications. This taxonomy standardizes the language and structure of medication error-related data to optimize its use across various systems.6 The ability to identify rare but serious errors improves with standardized information generated by a larger population of participants. Providers are experiencing increased pressure to improve on processes of reporting since many, including the IOM, are encouraging scrutiny of this information by purchasers of healthcare services. Voluntary reporting is one of the most significant safety related functions that delivery-level health professionals can participate in. It is vital to identifying system flaws that contribute to errors. As previously mentioned, system problems that contribute to error are particularly harmful because they are difficult to recognize, and because they can combine with a multitude of events to cause more errors. The JCAHO encourages voluntary reporting through its sentinel event policy and its various standards pertaining to patient safety. As a pharmacist, regardless of practice setting or function, ask yourself the following questions: * Do you feel your organizations error rate related to medications or the medication use process is accurate? * How do you respond when you discover an error (follow organizations procedure, document, ignore, etc.)? * Is this response uniform or do you differ action based on your evaluation of error significance? * When you report an error do you feel it will result in: a) an improvement to a system or process that will make the error less likely to be repeated, or b) someone getting into trouble? Usual answers to these questions quickly identify common barriers to reporting. We tend to blame individuals, often for things beyond their control. And we are often irregular about preparing reports, because, for a variety of reasons, we may choose not to do so. Selective treatment of errors may leave multiple "unimportant or no harm done" errors unaddressed without revealing shared system or organization problems that might result in more serious error. Authorities are aware of these obstacles. They acknowledge that we have much to learn about errors, why they occur, and how to prevent them. More exhaustive reporting, particularly at the delivery-level, is necessary. To encourage this, the adoption of non-punitive reporting systems with protection from legal discoverability is being advocated. These matters are evolving issues that will take some time to be achieved. Before subordinates will become less reluctant to accept reporting of errors leaders will need to demonstrate a departure from the culture of blame by acknowledging that systems contribute to error, and they must engage in efforts to improve these systems. Some have advocated educating health professionals on human performance and error so as to assist with altering our views on mistakes and our willingness to discuss them.28 Other issues affecting reporting include the ease of doing so and the time requirement. Reporting frequently involves completing forms that are cumbersome and time-consuming. Personnel shortages, costs, and other negative factors are unlikely to change drastically in the foreseeable future making the adoption of adequate reporting a daunting task. The Joint Commission designates an organizations leadership as accountable for establishing an environment that facilitates voluntary reporting. The burden cannot rest entirely there, however. Practitioners at every level need to understand that the principle goal of reporting is to improve patient safety; they must view it as a professional responsibility to encourage and facilitate it. Action on errors and potential errors can not proceed until they are identified and communicated. The FDA's MedWatch program, NCC MERP, and the USP-ISMP Medication Errors Reporting Program (MERP) are external reporting mechanisms useful to pharmacists. Through the MedWatch program, healthcare professionals and consumers may utilize FDA Form 3500 for voluntary reporting of adverse events associated with FDA-regulated products. Reports can be submitted online at: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/report/hcp.htm or by telephone at 1-800-FDA-1088. Medication errors can be reported to the NCC MERP at 1-800-233-7767. MERP provides system cause analysis of errors reported through it. Another source of medication error reports originating in hospitals is available by subscription from the United States Pharmacopeia which maintains MEDMARX, an anonymous national medication error reporting database. Error Analysis To learn from past mistakes an effective analysis of all contributing factors must follow the error identification. The importance of this function is underscored by the JCAHO's mandate for organizations to complete a thorough and credible root cause analysis (RCA) (1) any time a sentinel event occurs and (2) in response to "critical effects" identified during Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) used in an organization's required, ongoing, proactive program for identifying risks to patients' safety and reducing medical/healthcare errors (Standard LD.5.2). Critical effects are defined as possible serious effects on the patient from failure or undesirable variation in a process.22 In FMEA, processes are evaluated, ideally in the planning phase, to determine potential effects on patient safety when things don't go as planned or processes don't adhere to design or intent. Here the goal is to identify potential serious errors prior to their occurrence. Healthcare professionals routinely conduct intensive analyses of physical disease by exploring the condition at a cellular, molecular, and/or chemical level to understand the root cause of the condition. In the review of medical errors, intensive root cause analysis is a process by which the reasons underlying the occurrence are identified. Through this "cellular level" scrutiny of the medical error modifications are made so that reoccurrence can be prevented. It is based on the premise and philosophy of the National Patient Safety Foundation that most errors result from faulty systems rather than human error, and that people are in essence set up by them to make errors for which they are not truly responsible. In RCA, a team of representatives investigates an accident or mistake following a process that assumes the root cause to be an accumulation of smaller events.29 These events are dissected to discover (Figure 1): (1) the main reason an accident occurs (its proximate cause); (2) systematic problems that might lead to other mistakes (common causes); (3) contributors that could not have been foreseen or prevented (special causes); and (4) areas where the accident could have been avoided had things been done differently (risk points). Various methods and materials are available to advise and facilitate conducting an effective RCA. RCA has been used successfully for over thirty years in other settings, such as the nuclear and aviation industries. Certain barriers to application in the healthcare environment, however, have been identified. These include inadequate staff, insufficient time, fear of retribution, and stopping the analysis too soon.30 Leaders, care givers, and facilitators all have necessary roles in this process and must be represented for effective analysis. Time for proper evaluation is similarly crucial so that efforts don't stop with the most apparent or obvious causes. Both of these commodities, people and time, are scarce and thinly stretched in contemporary healthcare settings. Justification for these efforts (beyond being required to do so) is better patient care, more time-efficient processes, and the avoidance of costly mistakes. Fear of retribution applies to everyone in healthcare. Staff members are reluctant to participate in reporting because of the fear of self-incrimination when their actual performance varies from written policy or procedure. This poses a challenge to administrators and the facilitators to promote an environment that emphasizes the objective of preventing a future occurrence rather than asserting blame. Risk managers, administrators and individual licensed practitioners share a wariness of discussing and documenting mistakes because they fear possible legal action. The JCAHO sentinel event policy has been described as a "lawsuit kit for attorneys".31 However, JCAHO offers advice on how to minimize discoverability of these activities but admits that none are foolproof. Legislative protection has been suggested and recommended by the IOM but is currently not a reality. One method for avoiding or diminishing the fear of retribution is through evaluation of near misses, errors that have the potential to cause patient harm, or errors that have occurred outside of one's organization.32 Through studying these one can compare systems within their organization to arrive at a clearer understanding of system-based causes of errors and then devise proactive error reduction strategies in a non-punitive environment. An understanding of this intensive analysis and fact-finding process will provide the professional with further tools to view and evaluate processes and errors in individual work settings. In addition to the assessment of obvious system problems with simplistic solutions, the RCA arms the professional with detailed data for ongoing improvement. Regardless of whether you have the opportunity to participate in RCA or not, it is important that the reader understand how complex error can be. The bottle or label mix up in a retail work setting or mistake in intravenous antibiotic dilution in an institutional setting may signal system problems that if left unacknowledged might play a role in a future serious medication error. Healthcare professionals must learn to look beyond the surface of these matters to truly understand medication errors. Learning from other's mistakes can be extended to the analysis of medication errors. A novel source for this information is introduced by an analysis of medication-related malpractice insurance company claims by Rothschild et al.33 These claims provided detailed event information, including verbal depositions with information not always found in the medical record, that can be used to identify system and human factor failures. Error reporting and analysis directly impacts the previously mentioned common medication error causes. This process illuminates specific contributing acts, drugs, processes or functions to more fully define these causes so that productive corrective action can follow. Recognizing Error Prone Situations High Risk Situations: Populations and Processes Identification of high risk situations can come from various sources. Knowledge of reasons for errors related to human and system frailties have been considered previously and should enable practitioners to identify some situations prone to error. Human factors, such as stress or fatigue, can interfere with cognition. System inadequacies such as insufficient staffing, computer downtime or other technology failure can inject variability in processes or diminish capabilities. These and similar situations should clearly signal potential for mistakes and alert practitioners to take special measures. These might include seeking a second opinion from a co-worker, avoiding fatigue by delegating tasks, prioritizing activities, or utilizing additional reference materials. All personnel can elevate concerns for patient safety by identifying and acknowledging such situations. Other high risk circumstances are identified by organizations such as the JCAHO and ISMP that have collated data of common errors and risks. This information is disseminated via their respective web sites or through their respective publications, Sentinel Event Alert (http://www.jcaho.org/about+us/news+letters/sentinel+event+alert/) and ISMP Medication Safety Alerts (http://www.ismp.org), which, because of the large number of their contributors are capable of providing details of unusual occurring accidents along with information on how to resolve or avoid them. Knowledge of these events allows involved parties to respond to the increased error potential. The reader is encouraged to actively seek and review this information to identify the potential for error in their personal work habits and practice setting processes. Administrators can work to modify procedures and resources to minimize system contribution, and delivery-level personnel, through their awareness of the increased need for patient safety, can alter work habits. The JCAHO has mandated accredited organizations' participation in specific functions related to the handling of certain medications categorized as high risk. This requirement is part of the 2004 and 2005 National Patient Safety Goals. The list of high risk medications was compiled by the ISMP from error reports submitted to the USP-ISMP Medication Errors Reporting Program (available @ http://www.ismp.org; Table 3). It contains drugs that are not necessarily more prone to error, but those with a narrow therapeutic index or those where an error in use is more likely to harm a patient.34 Specific requirements are imposed on the availability of concentrated electrolytes in patient care areas in addition to offering more general guidelines affecting the safe use of medications. JCAHO has also addressed communication issues associated with heightened risk for error in its National Patient Safety Goals. These include verbal or telephone orders, and the use of abbreviations, acronyms and symbols. In their directives, procedures for receiving verbal or telephone orders, or telephonic reporting of critical test results must include verification by a complete "read-back". The impact of this procedural requirement in a clinical laboratory setting has been described. Errors detected and corrected by this method were determined to occur in 3.5% of the outgoing calls and the time required for requesting the information to be repeated and to do so averaged 12.8 seconds per call.35 Abbreviations, acronyms and symbols used in an organization are to be standardized and must also include a list of those NOT to be used. In 2004 JCAHO specified a "minimum list" noting abbreviations that should not be used and then allowed each organization to select a specified number of other abbreviations to add to their do not use list. (Table 4).23 The Goal addressing communication is expanded in 2005 to include the timely reporting of critical test results. Errors occur when patients are misidentified. To assist with the potentially "risky" process of patient identification the JCAHO has mandated a NPSG requiring the use of two patient-specific identifiers when administering medications or blood products, or when taking blood samples and other specimens for clinical testing.23 Currently, various methods of communicating (verbal, pictures, armbands, etc.) patient-specific identifiers (name, birthday, social security number, telephone number, etc.) are utilized, but indicators tend to support the eventual use of bar code technology for patient identification and for matching their treatments to them. In Flynn and colleagues observational study on prescription dispensing, the inspection process was the task most frequently associated with error.4 Table 5 lists error prevention techniques used in some of the pharmacies included in the study, some of which address the process of inspection. The authors revealed an important fact pertaining to these activities. They are not always effective. Many techniques will need to evolve for greater efficacy and some may actually give rise to new and different potential for error. As stated previously, patient safety related activities are very dynamic, a quality we must continually be mindful of. Certain populations are at elevated risk for mistakes with medication. For example, errors (particularly dosing errors) occur more frequently for children.36,37 The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement on preventing medication errors in the inpatient setting. Recommendations identify guidelines, actions, education and communication directed toward the system, prescriber, pharmacy and nursing. Of their recommendations, some are general in nature and reflect the tone and content of medication safety recommendations of other groups. Others are unique to this population and are summarized in Table 6. This table reinforces the multi-faceted nature of error associated with medication use and the need for action on many fronts to improve the safety of the process. The risk of medication error also appears to increase for patients who are administered multiple drugs.38 The elderly are particularly susceptible to medication errors due to physiologic changes and their use of multiple medications needed to treat increased chronic medical conditions.39 In the USP's Fourth Annual Report on Medication Errors in U.S. Hospitals it was revealed that more than one-third of hospital medication errors involve elderly patients. Notable characteristics of errors in this population include:40 * The majority (55 percent) of fatal hospital medication errors reported involved seniors. * Of medication errors causing harm to seniors, 9.6 percent were prescribing errors, 7 percent wrong route (e.g. tube feeding given intravenously), 6.5 percent wrong administration technique (e.g. failure to dilute concentrated medications). * Omission errors (43%), improper dose/quantity errors (18%), and unauthorized drug errors (11%) were the most common medication errors among those aged 65 and over. Awareness of the increased potential for error with these populations should alter system and individual processes. This might include verification of all pediatric patients' weight prior to filling their prescription or establishing an additional step to verify that all prescriptions are present and filled correctly for those presenting multiple prescriptions. By identifying error prone situations and employing modifications to make them safer, it is easy to see how these actions and remedies might impact the majority of previously defined causes of medication errors. Verification of verbal orders and restrictions on abbreviations use addresses these communication issues. Drug distribution practices can be altered to treat identified high risk medications and populations differently to ensure greater patient safety. Verification of weight-based pediatric and chemotherapy doses can reduce errors involving dose miscalculations. Problems associated with drug and drug devices are more likely to emerge, be identified, and ultimately disseminated to the masses by sources with access to large error data bases. Correct patient identification and treatment matching will reduce incidences of incorrect drug administration. Education resources can be channeled to address error prone situations. Patient Safety Practice Modifications By implementing practices with proven track records patient safety can be significantly affected. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the University of California at San Francisco-Stanford University Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC), evaluated and rated safety practices based on evidence in the literature.41 Most opportunities were clinical in nature and dealt with acute severe illness due to the focus of existing research and availability of the data it generates. Table 7 is a partial listing of the top 10 of 73 practices reviewed. This information lists patient safety practices that could potentially be influenced or facilitated by pharmacists in acute care centers. The AHRQ and EPC identified and rated other patient safety practices that appear promising but require further research. The following practices which rated most highly and could relate to pharmacists include: 41 * Improved perioperative glucose control to decrease perioperative infections. * Computerized physician order entry with computerized decision support systems to decrease medication errors and adverse events primarily due to the drug ordering process. * Limitations placed on antibiotic use to prevent hospital acquired infections due to antibiotic-resistant organisms. * Appropriate use of antibiotic prophylaxis in surgical patients to prevent perioperative infections. * Appropriate use of prophylaxis to prevent venous thromboembolism in patients at risk. * Appropriate provision of nutrition, with a particular emphasis on early enteral nutrition in critically ill and post-surgical patients. * Use of analgesics in the patient with an acutely painful abdomen without compromising diagnostic accuracy. * Improved handwashing compliance (via education/behavior change; sink technology and placement; or the use of antimicrobial washing substances). Technology Computerization in healthcare organizations has grown exponentially over the last decade. It has brought with it new challenges and concerns. Issues regarding the confidentiality of medical records, the training of reticent staff, and the ever-changing technology have prompted healthcare administrators to review policies and procedures, to add information technology staff, and to provide for ongoing training of all personnel. Computerization technology will play an important role in diminishing medical errors. One application currently available and in broad use is the computer generated medication administration record (MAR). This tool introduces consistency and increased legibility to this important document. In addition to the trade name and administration directions, other information (common side effects, food-drug interactions, monitoring parameters, etc.) can be easily incorporated to assist the care provider in the safe administration of the drug. A non-paper computerized form of this process can incorporate "live" information such as current laboratory information to screen for problems that might be associated with administration of a drug. Some helpful technology is seeing little use, however. Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is one such example. It appears that less than 7% of the hospitals in the United States avail themselves of this technology.42 CPOE systems eliminate a common trigger of medication errors - handwriting. It also provides prompts for the full name of the medication, the strength/concentration, dose, route, and frequency or rate. When integrated with "live" patient specific data, such as laboratory values, current weight, or current medication use, new orders can be screened for appropriateness and warnings initiated immediately at the beginning of the ordering process. Utilizing both the MAR and the CPOE can eliminate common transcription errors and allow for cumulative dose checking for PRN medications.43 Computerized clinical decision support systems, when used in conjunction with CPOE, can further aid in safe medication practices. Clinical decision support systems can check the ordered drug with patient characteristics, such as weight, allergies, the use of other drugs, and laboratory values.44,45 In one study it was determined that the use of a CPOE system with a basic decision support system led to a 64% reduction in all medication errors in an adult hospital. An 83% drop occurred when a more advanced decision support system was utilized.44 Other technology that is being studied for its impact on patient safety includes bar coding systems, robots, "smart" intravenous devices to reduce the likelihood of overdoses, and computerized discharge prescriptions and instructions to eliminate communication errors. Standardization Standardization promotes the consistency of patient care processes that should be sought at all levels within the healthcare environment. Critical pathways and practice guidelines lead healthcare professionals in the delivery of "best practices". Standardized times of administration of medications allows for efficient, consistent, and possibly interruption-free batching of medication administration. It also allows the coordination of other therapeutic interventions, such as rehabilitation visits, laboratory collections, and special testing. Standardized infusion concentrations pare down variability that may contribute to error. Standardizing equipment allows for reinforcement of use features through repetition, ease of training, and more efficient biomedical servicing capabilities. Studies have shown that standardization of equipment, guidelines, and protocols have dramatically reduced error rates. Errors attributable to anesthesia were reduced from 25-50 per million to 5.4 per million through just such standardization.46 Recognizing the value of standardization, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the standardization of equipment (scales, infusion pumps, etc.), measurement systems (Kg exclusively), and order sheets that systematically request crucial patient demographics (weight, allergies, contact numbers of prescriber, etc.) in their policy statement on preventing medication errors.37 The JCAHO embraces the importance of standardization in their National Patient Safety Goals.23,24 The requirement for adopting standardized lists of abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols that should and should not be used in organizations impacts communications contribution to error. Communication of crucial information to the providers of health services will be enhanced by the requirement (to be implemented by January 2006) calling for a complete list of the patient's current medications (standard information) to be available and communicated upon patient transfer within or outside an organization. To improve the safety of using medications, organizations are requested to standardize and limit the number of drug concentrations they have available to limit the variables that can create confusion in calculation and recognition. Health organizations are aware of patient groups at risk for misadventures with medications (e.g. oral anticoagulants, cardiac glycosides), or others that realize better outcomes when they are knowledgeable of their medications used in chronic illness (e.g. asthma, diabetes). Standardizing patient groups to receive education on specific medications or disease management can assist in achieving desired outcomes and decreasing problems related to medications. Education Staff training is crucial in reducing medical errors. Training that improves knowledge and proficiency in expected tasks adds to the previously identified desirable precondition of a "skilled and knowledgeable workforce". Education that includes potential pitfalls and consequences of incorrect use elevates the issue of error and the vigilance for employee recognition of it. Administrators can generate support for error reduction performance by adopting an organization-wide educational campaign that teaches workers how to identify the causes for medical errors when they occur. Understanding that the pediatric population is at increased risk for medication related errors, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that a program educating hospital and medical staff on the medication use process in children be developed. This program is to include calculating, prescribing, preparing, and administering medications for children. Education of the general public is also needed to increase awareness of the consumer's role in providing safe medical care. Responsibility for solving the medical error problem does not lie solely with healthcare professionals. Patients, their families, and their lay advisers must also become active members of the patient's healthcare team. Healthcare organizations should support consumer education by using different venues to communicate how consumers must share in preventing errors. The AHRQ has developed patient fact sheets that advocate consumer actions such as:47 1. Informing all health care providers about all medicines and pseudomedicines that are being taken, including prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, dietary supplements, vitamins and herbal products. 2. Informing all health care providers about any allergies and adverse reactions to medications. 3. Reading all prescriptions written by the physician to ensure that the pharmacist will be able to properly dispense it. 4. Asking for information about prescribed medicines in laymens terms. 5. In healthcare facilities, asking whether the direct care providers have washed their hands. 6. Asking the provider to explain the treatment plan. 7. Asking questions about any other pertinent concerns. 8. Finding out who is in charge of their care. 9. Asking for test results. The JCAHO parallels these suggestions and directs accredited organizations to educate patients about the patients' own responsibilities for preventing errors. (PF.3.7). These include at least the following: 1. Providing information 2. Asking questions 3. Following instructions 4. Accepting consequences 5. Following rules and regulations Education leads to empowerment - of both the professional and the lay public. When individuals are empowered they become involved and energetic in error prevention efforts. So what is next? Performance Improvement During the 1990s many health organizations took to heart the teachings of business quality leaders by looking for ways to improve their complex systems. The JCAHO recognized the benefit of such improvement efforts and mandated them in their standards. While many methods exist, the FOCUS-PDCA performance improvement method is referred to here in order to explore the state of the performance improvement initiative on a national basis, and how this initiative may be driven down to the front-line worker. F -Find a process improvement opportunity In 1998 the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry brought a national awareness to the issues associated with hospital safety. The IOM further focused on this issue through its study published in 1999. The JCAHO is now mandating that patient safety programs be established in accredited organizations. From a promulgation of the national studies and statistics, and an overall healthcare organization awareness campaign, the individual healthcare professional and technologist is beginning to recognize the importance of these efforts. O Organize a team that understands the process As a result of the federal mandate the QuIC Task Force was established to focus on this problem in federal health care programs. Many organizations (practice specialties, regulatory, consumer, etc.) are directing team efforts to combat medical errors. The JCAHO requires a designated manager and organization-wide participation. Healthcare organizations are challenged to pull teams together that represent the wide variety of personnel, skills, and tasks associated with high risk and problem-prone activities that may lead to medical errors. C Clarify the current knowledge of the process The IOM's To Err is Human report presents the most thorough data to the date of this publication defining the extent and severity of medical errors. Individual healthcare organizations also maintain within their own unique environments a myriad of statistics and reports that can help elucidate the extent of this problem. Utilizing these existing data and honing their systems to accumulate additional data will assist organizations in identifying best practices by comparing their systems and processes to other local, regional and national numbers. By sharing this information with the practice community the organization can measure its relative effectiveness and set a suitable benchmark for achievement. U Uncover the root cause of variation/poor outcome The JCAHO requires that organizations conduct root-cause analysis for all their sentinel events and some processes identified in their proactive risk reduction efforts so that through intensive study of the error they will gain a heightened understanding of the factors contributing to it. National studies have categorized types of preventable errors, but it is up to individual healthcare organizations to truly understand in their own case what leads to an adverse event. S Select a process improvement National reports recognize multiple proven interventions and system improvements to minimize medical errors. A few have been mentioned in this program. The simple adoption of a new system or the purchase of new technology however, cannot guarantee improvements. Any proposed improvement must stem from the RCA, the scope of care within the organization, the patient populations, and the organizations commitment to positive change. PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act System improvements range from the mundane and inexpensive to the cutting-edge technology that is often accompanied with a high price tag. Whatever system improvement is proposed, its initiation must be carefully planned and implemented. Continuous monitoring must be conducted to ensure that improvement is being made and that it can be sustained. This is a time consuming task but a rewarding one. Only through this type of systematic study and improvement, and through the participation of all those involved with healthcare systems in the United States (including the consumer), can the cycle of medical errors be interrupted. Conclusion Using broad strokes this program has provided information about a very serious and complex national concern. Pharmacists are essential participants and are central to its resolution. Through additional study of best practices, by using analysis methodologies, and by improving systems, the pharmacist will join with the practice community to provide the safest patient care possible. Most common drugs tied to ER visits by Jenifer Goodwin, HealthDay on Nov. 25, 2011, under USA Today News An estimated 100,000 older Americans are hospitalized for adverse drug reactions yearly, and most of those emergencies stem from four common medications, a new study finds. The four types of medication — two for diabetes and two blood-thinning agents — account for two-thirds of those drug-related emergency hospitalizations. “Of the thousands of medications available to older patients, a small group of blood thinners and diabetes medications caused a high proportion of emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events among elderly Americans,” said lead study author Dr. Daniel Budnitz, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s medication safety program. Medications previously designated “high-risk” were implicated in only 1.2 percent of hospitalizations, the study found. Working with a nationally representative database, CDC researchers identified more than 5,000 cases of drug-related adverse events that occurred among people aged 65 and older from 2007 to 2009 and used that to make their estimates for the whole population. Nearly half (48 percent) of the hospitalizations occurred among adults 80 and up, according to the study, published in the Nov. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) were the result of unintentional overdoses. The four medications, used alone or together, most often cited: The blood thinning medication warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven), which is used to treat blood clots, was involved in 33 percent of emergency hospitalizations. Insulin, used to control blood sugar in diabetes patients, was involved in 14 percent of cases. Antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix), which are used to prevent blood clots, were involved in 13 percent of cases. Oral hypoglycemic agents — diabetes medications taken by mouth — were involved in 11 percent of cases. With antiplatelet or blood thinning drugs, bleeding was the main problem. For insulin and other diabetes medications, about two-thirds of cases involved changes in mental status such as confusion, loss of consciousness or seizures. “These are important findings,” said Dr. Michael Steinman, an associate professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, who is familiar with the research. “This study highlights a few key issues that are important for doctors and patients to be aware of. The first is that serious adverse reactions to drugs are common among older people, particularly among people over 80. But even those 65 and older are at substantial risk of having an adverse effect from their drugs.” One challenge for doctors and patients is that the medications may be necessary, Budnitz said. “These are often critical medicines for patients’ health,” he said. “Patients who are on these medicines should tell all their doctors what they are taking and work together with their doctors and pharmacist to make sure that they are taking these medicines correctly.” Among U.S. adults aged 65 and up, 40 percent take five to nine medications and 18 percent take 10 or more, according to the study authors. Prior research has also found that older adults are nearly seven times more likely than younger people to have an adverse drug event that requires hospitalization. “As most people age, there often are changes in how their kidneys, liver, heart, and other organs work that can make them more susceptible to adverse drug events,” Budnitz said. And though taking lots of pills raises safety issues, in 82 percent of cases the treating physician attributed the overdose to a single drug, Budnitz added. To reduce risks, Steinman said doctors and patients need to discuss whether the drug is truly necessary. For people with very high blood pressure or blood sugar, “the answer is almost always ‘yes,’ you should treat it,” Steinman said. “But if you have only mildly elevated blood pressure or blood sugar, the benefits of treating it versus the harms start to shift. Do these drugs really provide enough benefit that it’s worth taking them?” Physicians and patients need to consider a person’s age, overall health, other medications they take (keep a list including dosages) and patient preference, such as how easy they find it to keep track of blood sugar and dosages, he said. With anticlotting or blood-thinning agents, stopping them is probably not an option, Steinman said. So patients need to be attuned to any side effects they experience, even if they seem minor. Catching side effects early can prevent more serious problems later on, and doctors may be able to change the medication or lower the dosage, he said. —- Copyright 2011 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved. Keywords:bc-GAN-HLTH-NEWSFEED 11-23Category:Other/GNS/GannettPublisher:APATOM.GUrgency:UrgentCategory (wire):lSupplementary category (wire):gixxxTransmission reference:G9475Edit status:Used in:Kindergarten-Obesity Copied by:// Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. February 17, 2012 For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage By JASON DePARLE and SABRINA TAVERNISE LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage. Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data. Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change. One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education. “Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania. The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems. The forces rearranging the family are as diverse as globalization and the pill. Liberal analysts argue that shrinking paychecks have thinned the ranks of marriageable men, while conservatives often say that the sexual revolution reduced the incentive to wed and that safety net programs discourage marriage. Here in Lorain, a blue-collar town west of Cleveland where the decline of the married two-parent family has been especially steep, dozens of interviews with young parents suggest that both sides have a point. Over the past generation, Lorain lost most of two steel mills, a shipyard and a Ford factory, diminishing the supply of jobs that let blue-collar workers raise middle-class families. More women went to work, making marriage less of a financial necessity for them. Living together became routine, and single motherhood lost the stigma that once sent couples rushing to the altar. Women here often describe marriage as a sign of having arrived rather than a way to get there. Meanwhile, children happen. Amber Strader, 27, was in an on-and-off relationship with a clerk at Sears a few years ago when she found herself pregnant. A former nursing student who now tends bar, Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so dependent that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid,” she said. When a second child, with a new boyfriend, followed three years later — her birth control failed, she said — her boyfriend, a part-time house painter, was reluctant to wed. Ms. Strader likes the idea of marriage; she keeps her parents’ wedding photo on her kitchen wall and says her boyfriend is a good father. But for now marriage is beyond her reach. “I’d like to do it, but I just don’t see it happening right now,” she said. “Most of my friends say it’s just a piece of paper, and it doesn’t work out anyway.” The recent rise in single motherhood has set off few alarms, unlike in past eras. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a top Labor Department official and later a United States senator from New York, reported in 1965 that a quarter of black children were born outside marriage — and warned of a “tangle of pathology” — he set off a bitter debate. By the mid-1990s, such figures looked quaint: a third of Americans were born outside marriage. Congress, largely blaming welfare, imposed tough restrictions. Now the figure is 41 percent — and 53 percent for children born to women under 30, according to Child Trends, which analyzed 2009 data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Still, the issue received little attention until the publication last month of “Coming Apart,” a book by Charles Murray, a longtime critic of non-marital births. Large racial differences remain: 73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less, according to Child Trends. Almost all of the rise in nonmarital births has occurred among couples living together. While in some countries such relationships endure at rates that resemble marriages, in the United States they are more than twice as likely to dissolve than marriages. In a summary of research, Pamela Smock and Fiona Rose Greenland, both of the University of Michigan, reported that two-thirds of couples living together split up by the time their child turned 10. In Lorain as elsewhere, explanations for marital decline start with home economics: men are worth less than they used to be. Among men with some college but no degrees, earnings have fallen 8 percent in the past 30 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the earnings of their female counterparts have risen by 8 percent. “Women used to rely on men, but we don’t need to anymore,” said Teresa Fragoso, 25, a single mother in Lorain. “We support ourselves. We support our kids.” Fifty years ago, researchers have found, as many as a third of American marriages were precipitated by a pregnancy, with couples marrying to maintain respectability. Ms. Strader’s mother was among them. Today, neither of Ms. Strader’s pregnancies left her thinking she should marry to avoid stigma. Like other women interviewed here, she described her children as largely unplanned, a byproduct of uncommitted relationships. Some unwed mothers cite the failures of their parents’ marriages as reasons to wait. Brittany Kidd was 13 when her father ran off with one of her mother’s friends, plunging her mother into depression and leaving the family financially unstable. “Our family life was pretty perfect: a nice house, two cars, a dog and a cat,” she said. “That stability just got knocked out like a window; it shattered.” Ms. Kidd, 21, said she could not imagine marrying her son’s father, even though she loves him. “I don’t want to wind up like my mom,” she said. Others noted that if they married, their official household income would rise, which could cost them government benefits like food stamps and child care. W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, said other government policies, like no-fault divorce, signaled that “marriage is not as fundamental to society” as it once was. Even as many Americans withdraw from marriage, researchers say, they expect more from it: emotional fulfillment as opposed merely to practical support. “Family life is no longer about playing the social role of father or husband or wife, it’s more about individual satisfaction and self-development,” said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University. Money helps explain why well-educated Americans still marry at high rates: they can offer each other more financial support, and hire others to do chores that prompt conflict. But some researchers argue that educated men have also been quicker than their blue-collar peers to give women equal authority. “They are more willing to play the partner role,” said Sara McLanahan, a Princeton sociologist. Reviewing the academic literature, Susan L. Brown of Bowling Green State University recently found that children born to married couples, on average, “experience better education, social, cognitive and behavioral outcomes.” Lisa Mercado, an unmarried mother in Lorain, would not be surprised by that. Between nursing classes and an all-night job at a gas station, she rarely sees her 6-year-old daughter, who is left with a rotating cast of relatives. The girl’s father has other children and rarely lends a hand. “I want to do things with her, but I end up falling asleep,” Ms. Mercado said. Michael Steele on the Importance of Israel Sivan 18, 5770, 31 May 10 10:01 by Arutz Sheva staff (Israelnationalnews.com) Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele spoke recently at the Israel Day Concert in New York. Steele spoke of America's ties to Israel in faith, in freedom, and in destiny, and slammed the Obama administration for “dithering” while Iran arms itself. Steele's speech was as follows: It is a real honor and real pleasure to be here with all of you this afternoon. These are sobering times, these are important times, and I am just really grateful to be able to take a moment to share a few thoughts. First I want to thank Joe Frager for the opportunity to be here. What an incredible effort, Joe. Congratulations again for bringing all the community together. And to Danny Dannon - thank you so much for your leadership in the Knesset. I’m looking forward to joining you in Israel soon so that we can continue the hard work of raising the flag around the world about Israel’s security. From the earliest moments of American history, before there was a political state of Israel, Americans were dreaming dreams of a Jewish homeland. John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson, “I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.” In another letter he wrote, “I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” Abraham Lincoln, responding to a friend proposing a homeland for the Jews in the Holy Land, said, “This was a noble dream and one shared by many Americans.” Ronald Reagan noted as well, back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today Mr. Reagan said, “No one questions that Israel is the land of stability and democracy in a region of tyranny and unrest.” Ladies and gentlemen, every generation in each century of American history, the greatest of American patriots and leaders - Adams, Lincoln, Reagan - have linked the heart of America to the cause of Israel. Why? What is it about America that so deeply connects us to Israel? There are many possible explanations: our shared moral code, rooted deeply in Mosaic law, our common history as nations founded by those seeking refuge from religious persecution, our democratic political systems, our free market economic systems, our shared commitment to equality, tolerance and generosity in the face of less than generous treatment by others. With all this in common, it is no wonder that we share not only a deep friendship, but we also share enemies. There are many who hate and envy both of our nations, our freedoms, our values, our very existence. The same villainous characters around the world and throughout history have targeted US and Israeli interests, including the Nazis, the Soviet Communists, the Islamic Radicals. Wherever there’s a titan of tyranny anywhere in the world, he hates America and he hates Israel. What is it about this tiny country, barely holding on to a little strip of land, that so provokes the powers of evil on the earth? I would argue that it’s not just political or historical or ethnic differences driving this animosity. I believe that the presence of the Jewish people, the very presence of the Jewish people, surviving all horrors, thriving in the midst of constant terror and attack, does indeed serve as a rebuke to the nations; because her nationhood, her continued blessedness, despite all the curses that man has spewed and inflicted, is an irrefutable manifestation to the watching world of G-d’s covenant with the people of Israel. You see, some would argue that we share interests with Israel. I would argue that we share faith with Israel. As modern man becomes increasingly secular and forgets G-d, the nation of Israel is a stark reminder that Israel’s G-d has not forgotten man. Americans are a deeply religious people, with most of us rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition. As such, our bond with Israel isn’t just on a political or economic level. Our bond is spiritual. As Ruth said to Naomi in the Hebrew Scriptures, so America says to Israel, “Where you go, we will go, your people will be our people, and your G-d our G-d.” That is why we have stuck so closely together all these years. We have always known that our fates our linked. Ever since the founding of Israel in 1948 and the recognition of her by the US eleven minutes later, America has been a reliable friend, ally and partner in the struggle for Israel’s survival. The world has also always known: you mess with Israel, you mess with America. You try to wipe out seven million Israelis, you better be prepared to take out three hundred million Americans as well. That is why America has said repeatedly that vicious and dangerous regimes like Iran will not, on our watch, develop the capability to carry out their clear and unmistakable threats to destroy Israel and her people. That is, until now. It grieves me to the core to have to admit that today the American government has abdicated her traditional solidarity with Israel. Today Israel truly stands alone among governments, facing existential threats more dangerous and more imminent that ever before. That’s not to say that Israel has been abandoned however by the American people, but there is no denying that the current administration and its congressional collaborators have left Israel to fend for herself. Now I’m talking about, of course, the grave and gathering threat in Iran. This threat has never been more urgent and more important, and the US response to such dangerous intentions has never been so timid. We all know the stakes. Iran’s rulers have repeatedly and unashamedly threatened to eliminate Israel and are aggressively enriching uranium to that end. But our intelligence efforts are so tepid that we can’t tell you whether or not those nuclear weapons will be developed within a year or five years. Undoubtedly, Iran is the most dangerous threat to the world. As Israel implores the international community to take action, what is America’s response? Well, we are governed by a modern day Neville Chamberlain, constantly issuing assurances of coming peace filled with Orwellian doublespeak about not tolerating a nuclear Iran, while simultaneously abandoning every possible point of leverage that can be used to bring Iran’s nuclear program to its knees. World governments know Iran’s economy is in the tank, but this administration’s policy towards Iran is so upside down that President Obama is more likely to offer Iran a Greece style bailout than use Iran’s economic vulnerabilities to put a stake in the heart of her nuclear ambitions. The only product Iran’s economy can export is terrorism, and at this Iran is unsurpassed by any other nation. Iran’s funding, resources, weapons, training and soldiers are killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan just as sure as they are supporting Hezbollah’s efforts to kill Israelis and further radicalize Israel’s neighbors. If you can examine any of the rockets falling at will and at random on innocent children in Israeli towns, you wouldn’t be surprised to see a sticker reading “I am Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and I approve this message.” And still the Obama administration dithers. The president shuts down Washington DC for days on end to hold nuclear summits that aren’t attended by the world’s actual nuclear threats and result only in promises by that rogue regime to the north, Canada, to turn over its uranium. All this would be laughable if it wouldn’t be so deadly serious. And the seriousness is felt no where more than in Israel. About five minutes after Iran acquires a nuclear weapon Israel will be bombed. Period. This is an absolute certainty. Iran is not restrained by any sort of instinct for survival the way the Soviets were. So we must take them at their word - they will attack. This is the cold, hard reality that the international community doesn’t want to face, because admitting it would demand action that is simply inconvenient. It would require ending lucrative business deals. It would require some sacrifice on the part of Europeans. If recent economic events are any indication then short term sacrifice to achieve long term goals seems not to be the modern European strength. It would require some unpleasant diplomatic pressure applied to China, which requires some fiscal restraint here at home, but given the leverage that we have given the Chinese with our debt and deficits that’s not likely to happen. It would require some unpleasant phone calls to Moscow, and liberals today still recoil at anything that would irritate the increasingly repressive, not so former communists in the Kremlin. All of this is embarrassingly awkward for the president. It has the added downside requiring this administration to stand for something resembling American values, including our traditional solidarity with Israel. It might even require some common courtesy the next time the Israeli prime minister visits the United States. It seems that all of this is simply too much to ask of this administration and those who have an appeasement first mentality. I say, no more! For the sake of Jerusalem, we must not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem, we must no longer allow this or any administration to second guess the relationship between Israel and America. For the sake of Jerusalem, the world can no longer demand that Israel sell out the security of her people and make every concession in the book just for the off chance that a Palestinian leadership might show up at the bargaining table willing to recognize Israel’s right to exist. This administration has begun to make a different choice when it comes to Israel. The Republican party that I head sees only one choice - solidarity. Now I would argue further that the core principals of our party are inherently friendlier to Israel because they are based on the truth of human nature and good and evil. Republicans, unlike our utopian friends in Washington, recognize that there’s evil in the world, and it is emboldened rather than mitigated by concessions and appeasement. Republicans recognize that liberty will always cost something, but it’s always worth the cost. Republicans understand that the first and foundational responsibility of securing peace is securing strength. My friends, if Israel is to be safe, if Iran’s nuclear program is to be shut down, then we must recognize that not all political parties are created equally. Ideas have consequences. Elections have consequences. Elections more than ever are not just popularity or beauty contests. They are deadly serious contests of those ideas. Their results matter not just for America, but for the world. Israel’s survival requires an America that is strong and a president whose words have meaning and whose promises are kept. Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said at the 2008 AIPAC policy conference that the only way we lose in the war on terror is if we quit, if we lose the will to support and promote our own values. Well, the only way Israel will lose is if we quit on her, if we lose the will to secure and support her peace. My friends, I cannot promise you the outcome of elections this November. I can’t promise what America will do or won’t do. There used to be a time when America could promise a solidarity with Israel. Even those days are starting to grow dark. However, I will promise you this: Republicans across this nation will continue to stand with our ally and our friend Israel, as we work to secure the future, not only for the next generation of Americans, but for Israel’s children and grandchildren as well. As I close and as we reflect on these sobering times and what they mean for both Israel and America, I want to share with you the Psalm of Assaf from psalm 83, “Oh G-d, do not keep silent. Be not quiet, oh G-d, be not still. See how Your enemies are astir; how Your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against Your people. They plot against those You cherish. Come they say, let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more. With one mind they plot together. They form an alliance against You. Make them like tumbleweed, oh my G-d, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with Your tempest and terrify them with Your storm. Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek Your name, oh, my Lord. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed. May they perish in disgrace. Let them know that You, whose name is the Lord, and You alone are the most high over all the earth.” This is my prayer for Israel. I pray too that there will be a day when, as Golda Meir said, Israel’s enemies love their children more than they hate Israel. I pray that the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will continue to bless his covenant people and that their survival and, indeed, their prosperity as a nation will continue to shame the enemies of freedom and unite Jerusalem forever. May G-d bless our nations and those who defend them. Shalom. (Sara Lehmann of New York transcribed the speech). March 19, 2009, 6:25 pm The Conficker Worm: April Fool’s Joke or Unthinkable Disaster? By John Markoff Update | 3:57 p.m. Added links to malware removal tools. The Conficker worm is scheduled to activate on April 1, and the unanswered question is: Will it prove to be the world’s biggest April Fool’s joke or is it the information age equivalent of Herman Kahn’s legendary 1962 treatise about nuclear war, “Thinking About the Unthinkable”? Conficker is a program that is spread by exploiting several weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Various versions of the software have spread widely around the globe since October, mostly outside the United States because there are more computers overseas running unpatched, pirated Windows. (The program does not infect Macintosh or Linux-based computers.) An estimated 12 million or more machines have been infected. However, many have also been disinfected, so a precise census is difficult to obtain. It is possible to detect and remove Conficker using commercial antivirus tools offered by many companies. However, the most recent version of the program has a significantly improved capacity to remove commercial antivirus software and to turn off Microsoft’s security update service. It can also block communications with Web services provided by security companies to update their products. It even systematically opens holes in firewalls in an effort to improve its communication with other infected computers. Given the sophisticated nature of the worm, the question remains: What is the purpose of Conficker, which could possibly become the world’s most powerful parallel computer on April 1? That is when the worm will generate 50,000 domain names and systematically try to communicate with each one. The authors then only need to register one of the domain names in order to take control of the millions of zombie computers that have been created. Speculation about Conficker’s purpose ranges from the benign — an April Fool’s Day prank — to far darker notions. One likely possibility is that the program will be used in the “rent-a-computer-crook” business, something that has been tried previously by the computer underground. Just like Amazon.com offers computing time on its network for rent, the Conficker team might rent access to its “network” for nefarious purposes like spamming. The most intriguing clue about the purpose of Conficker lies in the intricate design of the peer-to-peer logic of the latest version of the program, which security researchers are still trying to completely decode. According to a research addendum to be added Thursday to an earlier paper by researchers at SRI International, in the Conficker C version of the program, the infected computers can act both as clients and servers and share files in both directions. The peer-to-peer design is also highly distributed, making it more difficult for security teams to defeat the system by disabling so-called super-nodes. Conficker’s authors could be planning to create a scheme like Freenet, the peer-to-peer system that was intended to make Internet censorship of documents impossible. Or perhaps the Conficker botnet’s masters have something more Machiavellian in mind. One researcher, Stefan Savage, a computer scientist at the University of California at San Diego, has suggested the idea of a “Dark Google.” What if Conficker is intended to give the computer underworld the ability to search for data on all the infected computers around the globe and then sell the answers? Malware already does this on a focused basis using a variety of schemes that are referred to as “spear phishing,” in a reference to the widespread use of social engineering tricks on the Net. But to do something like that on a huge scale? That would be a dragnet — and a genuine horror story. February 10, 2011 Hospitals Shift Smoking Bans to Smoker Ban By A. G. SULZBERGER Smokers now face another risk from their habit: it could cost them a shot at a job. More hospitals and medical businesses in many states are adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants, saying they want to increase worker productivity, reduce health care costs and encourage healthier living. The policies reflect a frustration that softer efforts — like banning smoking on company grounds, offering cessation programs and increasing health care premiums for smokers — have not been powerful-enough incentives to quit. The new rules essentially treat cigarettes like an illegal narcotic. Applications now explicitly warn of “tobacco-free hiring,” job seekers must submit to urine tests for nicotine and new employees caught smoking face termination. This shift — from smoke-free to smoker-free workplaces — has prompted sharp debate, even among anti-tobacco groups, over whether the policies establish a troubling precedent of employers intruding into private lives to ban a habit that is legal. “If enough of these companies adopt theses policies and it really becomes difficult for smokers to find jobs, there are going to be consequences,” said Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, who has written about the trend. “Unemployment is also bad for health.” Smokers have been turned away from jobs in the past — prompting more than half the states to pass laws rejecting bans on smokers — but the recent growth in the number of companies adopting no-smoker rules has been driven by a surge of interest among health care providers, according to academics, human resources experts and tobacco opponents. There is no reliable data on how many businesses have adopted such policies. But people tracking the issue say there are enough examples to suggest the policies are becoming more mainstream, and in some states courts have upheld the legality of refusing to employ smokers. For example, hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas, among others, stopped hiring smokers in the last year and more are openly considering the option. “We’ve had a number of inquiries over the last 6 to 12 months about how to do this,” said Paul Terpeluk, a director at the Cleveland Clinic, which stopped hiring smokers in 2007 and has championed the policy. “The trend line is getting pretty steep, and I’d guess that in the next few years you’d see a lot of major hospitals go this way.” A number of these organizations have justified the new policies as advancing their institutional missions of promoting personal well-being and finding ways to reduce the growth in health care costs. About 1 in 5 Americans still smoke, and smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths. And employees who smoke cost, on average, $3,391 more a year each for health care and lost productivity, according to federal estimates. “We felt it was unfair for employees who maintained healthy lifestyles to have to subsidize those who do not,” Steven C. Bjelich, chief executive of St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo., which stopped hiring smokers last month. “Essentially that’s what happens.” Two decades ago — after large companies like Alaska Airlines, Union Pacific and Turner Broadcasting adopted such policies — 29 states and the District of Columbia passed laws, with the strong backing of the tobacco lobby and the American Civil Liberties Union, that prohibit discrimination against smokers or those who use “lawful products.” Some of those states, like Missouri, make an exception for health care organizations. A spokesman for Philip Morris said the company was no longer actively working on the issue, though it remained strongly opposed to the policies. Meghan Finegan, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, which represents 1.2 million health care workers, said the issue was “not on our radar yet.” One concern voiced by groups like the National Workrights Institute is that such policies are a slippery slope — that if they prove successful in driving down health care costs, employers might be emboldened to crack down on other behavior by their workers, like drinking alcohol, eating fast food and participating in risky hobbies like motorcycle riding. The head of the Cleveland Clinic was both praised and criticized when he mused in an interview two years ago that, were it not illegal, he would expand the hospital policy to refuse employment to obese people. “There is nothing unique about smoking,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the Workrights Institute, who has lobbied vigorously against the practice. “The number of things that we all do privately that have negative impact on our health is endless. If it’s not smoking, it’s beer. If it’s not beer, it’s cheeseburgers. And what about your sex life?” Many companies add their own wrinkle to the smoking ban. Some even prohibit nicotine patches. Some companies test urine for traces of nicotine, while others operate on the honor system. While most of the companies applied their rules only to new employees, a few eventually mandated that existing employees must quit smoking or lose their jobs. There is also disagreement over whether to fire employees who are caught smoking after they are hired. The Truman Medical Centers, here in Kansas City, for example, will investigate accusations of tobacco use by employees. In one recent case a new employee returned from a lunch break smelling of smoke and, when confronted by his supervisor, admitted that he had been smoking, said Marcos DeLeon, head of human resources for the hospital. The employee was fired. Even antismoking advocates have found the issue tricky to navigate. The American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization do not hire smokers, citing their own efforts to reduce smoking. But the American Legacy Foundation, an antismoking nonprofit group, has warned that refusing to hire smokers who are otherwise qualified essentially punishes an addiction that is far more likely to afflict a janitor than a surgeon. (Indeed, of the first 14 applicants rejected since the policy went into effect in October at the University Medical Center in El Paso, Tex., one was applying to be a nurse and the rest for support positions.) “We want to be very supportive of smokers, and the best thing we can do is help them quit, not condition employment on whether they quit,” said Ellen Vargyas, chief counsel for the American Legacy Foundation. “Smokers are not the enemy.” Taking a drag of her cigarette outside the University of Kansas School of Nursing, just beyond the sign warning that smoking is prohibited on campus, Mandy Carroll explained that she was well aware of the potential consequences of her pack-a-day habit: both her parents died of smoking-related illnesses. But Ms. Carroll, a 26-year-old nursing student, said she opposed any effort by hospitals to “discriminate” against her and other smokers. “Obviously we know the effects of smoking, we see it every day in the hospital,” Ms. Carroll said. “It’s a stupid choice, but it’s a personal choice.” Others do not mind the strict policy. John J. Stinson, 68, said he had been smoking for more than three decades when he decided to apply for a job at the Cleveland Clinic, helping incoming patients, nearly three years ago. It turned out to be the motivation he needed: he passed the urine test and has not had a cigarette since. “It’s a good idea,” Mr. Stinson said. Alain Delaquérière contributed research. From FRD_SMAS.01-000069310_16044327_10@e0.monster.com Wed Aug 29 23:31:33 2007 Received: from mailman106-q0.ma.tmpw.net (mailman106-q0.ma.tmpw.net [63.112.170.32]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with SMTP id l7U3VQjR027051 for ; Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:31:32 -0400 Received: (qmail 9926 invoked from network); 30 Aug 2007 03:31:15 -0000 Received: from unica102.ma.monster.com (HELO unica102) (10.50.10.22) by mailman106-q0.ma.tmpw.net with SMTP; 30 Aug 2007 03:31:15 -0000 Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:31:15 -0500 From: "Monster" Reply-To: "Monster" Subject: An Important Message to Our Valued Monster Customers To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="uaceuace.uaceuace.alt.uaceuace.uaceuace" Status: RO Content-Length: 31774 Lines: 652 Important Notice: This email is sent as a multi-part message in MIME format. 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Sorry for the any inconvenience caused by us. --uaceuace.uaceuace.alt.uaceuace.uaceuace Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D MONSTER=20 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Dear Valued Monster Customer,=20 Protecting the job seekers who use our website is a top=20 priority, and we value the trust you place in Monster.=20 Regrettably, opportunistic criminals are increasingly=20 using the Internet for illegitimate purposes. As is the=20 case with many companies that maintain large databases=20 of information, Monster is from time to time subject to=20 attempts to illegally extract information from its=20 database. As you may be aware, the Monster resume database was=20 recently the target of malicious activity that involved=20 the illegal downloading of information such as names,=20 addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for some of=20 our job seekers with resumes posted on Monster sites.=20 Monster responded to this specific incident by conducting=20 a comprehensive review of internal processes and=20 procedures, notified those job seekers that their contact=20 records had been downloaded illegally, and shut down a=20 rogue server that was hosting these records. The Company has determined that this incident is not the=20 first time Monster's database has been the target of=20 criminal activity. Due to the significant amount of=20 uncertainty in determining which individual job seekers=20 may have been impacted, Monster felt that it was in your=20 best interest to take the precautionary steps of reaching=20 out to you and all Monster job seekers regarding this=20 issue. Monster believes illegally downloaded contact=20 information may be used to lure job seekers into opening a=20 "phishing" email that attempts to acquire financial=20 information or lure job seekers into fraudulent financial=20 transactions. This has been the case in similar attacks=20 on other websites.=20 We want to inform you about preventive measures you can=20 take to protect yourself from online fraud. While no=20 company can completely prevent unauthorized access to=20 data, we believe that by reaching out to job seekers like=20 you, the Company can help users better defend themselves=20 against those who have attacked Monster as well as other=20 databases. We are committed to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with=20 all of our job seekers about Internet security and the=20 steps Monster is taking to protect its job seekers. The=20 Company has placed a security alert on Monster sites=20 offering information to educate you about online fraud.=20 This information can be found at: http://e0.monster.com/emessageRMS/servlet/RMS?v=3D2&i=3D21686&t=3D000069310= &ep=3Dt9C337F31779F2CC2&xp=3Dt9C337F31779F2CC2&c=3DtFEF2B55E37C31D07824A45D= 337210422502FDA80BA565411 We have also included information on Internet safety and=20 examples of fraudulent "phishing" emails at the bottom of=20 this letter.=20 Monster has launched a series of initiatives to enhance=20 and to protect the information you have entrusted to us.=20 Some of these steps are being immediately implemented,=20 while others will be put into place as appropriate.=20 We believe these actions are the responsible steps to=20 protect the trust you place in Monster. We are also=20 working with Monster's hundreds of thousands of employer=20 customers to ensure a safe and effective online job=20 search. We will continue to share information with you=20 about the enhancements we are making as we serve as your=20 online career resource partner. We invite you to keep=20 reading to learn more about how to use the Internet=20 safely.=20 Sincerely,=20 Sal Iannuzzi=20 Chairman and CEO=20 Monster Worldwide=20 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D HOW TO BE A SAFE INTERNET USER=20 Every Internet site in the world is facing the growing=20 issue of fraudulent usage of information, and we want to=20 work with users around the world to stop this practice -=20 please keep reading to learn more about the warning signs=20 and what you can do.=20 Spam email is such a common occurrence today; you may=20 think you know what to look for. But there are two types=20 of email scams - what's known as "phishing" and "spoofing"=20 - that can be more difficult to identify. Both practices=20 concern fraudulent email where the 'from address' has been=20 forged to make it appear as if it came from somewhere, or=20 someone, other than the actual source. Below are the=20 warning signs to look for:=20 What's "phishing" all about - and how do I spot it?=20 Phishing emails are used to fraudulently obtain personal=20 identification and account information. They can also be=20 used to lure the recipient into downloading malicious=20 software. The message will often suggest there are issues=20 with the recipient's account that requires immediate=20 attention. A link will also be provided to a spoof website=20 where the recipient will be asked to provide=20 personal/account information or download malicious=20 software. Monster will never ask you to download software=20 in order to access your account or use our services.=20 How is it different than "spoofing"?=20 Spoof emails often include a fraudulent offer of=20 employment and/or the invitation to serve as a go-between=20 for payment processing or money transfers. This scam is=20 primarily directed at a general audience, but it can also=20 reach Monster members who have included contact=20 information on their resumes. Like with phishing emails,=20 the sender's address is often disguised.=20 Examples of fraudulent email:=20 These examples of fraudulent email show you what to watch=20 out for (click to see details):=20 Example 1:=20 http://help.monster.com/besafe/email/example1/=20 Example 2:=20 http://help.monster.com/besafe/email/example2/ Example 3:=20 http://help.monster.com/besafe/email/example3/ Example 4:=20 http://help.monster.com/besafe/email/example4/ Example 5:=20 http://help.monster.com/besafe/email/example5/ =20 Consumer Advice: How to Avoid Phishing Scams=20 The number and sophistication of phishing scams sent out=20 to consumers is continuing to increase dramatically. While=20 online banking and e-commerce is very safe, as a general=20 rule you should be careful about giving out your personal=20 financial information over the Internet. The Anti-Phishing=20 Working Group has compiled a list of recommendations that=20 you can use to avoid becoming a victim of these scams.=20 - Be suspicious of any email with requests for personal=20 financial information. =20 - Phishers typically include upsetting or exciting (but=20 false) statements in their emails to get people to react=20 immediately. =20 - They typically ask for information such as usernames,=20 passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers,=20 date of birth, etc. =20 - Don't use the links in an email, instant message, or=20 chat to get to any web page if you suspect the message=20 might not be authentic. =20 - Instead, call the company on the telephone, or log onto=20 the website directly by typing in the Web address in your=20 browser. =20 - You should only communicate information such as credit=20 card numbers or account information via a secure website=20 or the telephone. =20 - Always ensure that you're using a secure website when=20 submitting credit card or other sensitive information via=20 your Web browser. =20 Additional consumer advice is available at:=20 http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html If you have more questions, please visit:=20 http://e0.monster.com/emessageRMS/servlet/RMS?v=3D2&i=3D21686&t=3D000069310= &ep=3Dt9C337F31779F2CC2&xp=3Dt9C337F31779F2CC2&c=3DtFEF2B55E37C31D07824A45D= 337210422502FDA80BA565411 Contact us at http://www.monster.com/contact. =20 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Monster respects your online time and privacy. This is a=20 service-related email to notify you of important account=20 information.=20 Questions? Email us directly by visiting=20 http://www.monster.com/contact/. Please do not reply to=20 this email.=20 To read the Monster Privacy Commitment, visit=20 http://about.monster.com/privacy/=20 Monster, 5 Clock Tower Place, Suite 500, Maynard, MA 01754=20 Add monster@e0.monster.com to your address book to ensure=20 delivery of Monster emails. --uaceuace.uaceuace.alt.uaceuace.uaceuace Content-Type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20
=20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20
3D""3D"Monster"
=20
=3D""
=20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20
=3D""=20 =20 Dear Valued Monster Customer,
=20
=20 Protecting the job seekers who use our website is a top priority, and w= e value the trust you place in Monster. Regrettably, opportunistic criminal= s are increasingly using the Internet for illegitimate purposes. As is the = case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Mons= ter is from time to time subject to attempts to illegally extract informati= on from its database.
=20 3D""
=20 As you may be aware, the Monster resume database was recently the targe= t of malicious activity that involved the illegal downloading of informatio= n such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for some of = our job seekers with resumes posted on Monster sites. Monster responded to = this specific incident by conducting a comprehensive review of internal pro= cesses and procedures, notified those job seekers that their contact record= s had been downloaded illegally, and shut down a rogue server that was host= ing these records.
=20 3D""
=20 The Company has determined that this incident is not the first time Mon= ster's database has been the target of criminal activity. Due to the signi= ficant amount of uncertainty in determining which individual job seekers ma= y have been impacted, Monster felt that it was in your best interest to tak= e the precautionary steps of reaching out to you and all Monster job seeker= s regarding this issue. Monster believes illegally downloaded contact infor= mation may be used to lure job seekers into opening a "phishing" email that= attempts to acquire financial information or lure job seekers into fraudul= ent financial transactions. This has been the case in similar attacks on ot= her websites.
=20 3D""
=20 We want to inform you about preventive measures you can take to protect= yourself from online fraud. While no company can completely prevent unauth= orized access to data, we believe that by reaching out to job seekers like = you, the Company can help users better defend themselves against those who = have attacked Monster as well as other databases.
=20 3D""
=20 We are committed to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with all of our job= seekers about Internet security and the steps Monster is taking to protect= its job seekers. The Company has placed a security alert on Monster sites = offering information to educate you about online fraud. This information ca= n be found at http://help.monster.c= om/besafe/. We have also included information on Internet safety and ex= amples of fraudulent "phishing" emails at the bottom of this letter.
=20 3D""
=20 Monster has launched a series of initiatives to enhance and to protect = the information you have entrusted to us. Some of these steps are being imm= ediately implemented, while others will be put into place as appropriate.=20 3D""
=20 We believe these actions are the responsible steps to protect the trust= you place in Monster. We are also working with Monster's hundreds of thou= sands of employer customers to ensure a safe and effective online job searc= h. We will continue to share information with you about the enhancements we= are making as we serve as your online career resource partner. We = invite you to keep reading to learn more about how to use the Internet safe= ly.
=20 3D""
=20 Sincerely,
=20
=20 3D"Signature"=
=20 Sal Iannuzzi
=20 3D""
=20 Chairman and CEO
=20 3D""
=20 Monster Worldwide
=20 3D""
=20 HOW TO BE A SAFE INTERNET USER
=20 3D""
=20 Every Internet site in the world is facing the growing issue of fraudul= ent usage of information, and we want to work with users around the world t= o stop this practice - please keep reading to learn more about the warning = signs and what you can do.
=20 3D""
=20 Spam email is such a common occurrence today; you may think you know wh= at to look for. But there are two types of email scams - what's known as "p= hishing" and "spoofing" - that can be more difficult to identify. Both prac= tices concern fraudulent email where the 'from address' has been forged to = make it appear as if it came from somewhere, or someone, other than the act= ual source. Below are the warning signs to look for:
=20
=20 What's "phishing" all about – and how do I spot it?
=20 3D""
=20 Phishing emails are used to fraudulently obtain personal identification= and account information. They can also be used to lure the recipient into = downloading malicious software. The message will often suggest there are is= sues with the recipient's account that requires immediate attention. A link= will also be provided to a spoof website where the recipient will be asked= to provide personal/account information or download malicious software. Monster will never ask you to download software in order to access yo= ur account or use our services.
=20 3D""
=20 How is it different than "spoofing"?
=20 3D""
=20 Spoof emails often include a fraudulent offer of employment and/or the = invitation to serve as a go-between for payment processing or money transfe= rs. This scam is primarily directed at a general audience, but it can also = reach Monster members who have included contact information on their resume= s. Like with phishing emails, the sender's address is often disguised.
= =20 3D""
=20 Examples of fraudulent email:
=20 3D""
=20 These examples of fraudulent email show you what to = watch out for (click to see details):
=20 3D""
=20 3D"Exampl==20 3D"Exampl==20 3D"Exampl==20 3D"Exampl==20 3D"Exampl=
=20
=20 Consumer Advice: How to Avoid Phishing Scams
=20 3D""
=20 The number and sophistication of phishing scams sent out to consumers i= s continuing to increase dramatically. While online banking and e-commerce = is very safe, as a general rule you should be careful about giving out your= personal financial information over the Internet. The Anti-Phishing Workin= g Group has compiled a list of recommendations that you can use to avoid be= coming a victim of these scams.
=20 3D""
=20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 Be suspicious of any email with requests for personal financial info= rmation.=20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 Phishers typically include upsetting or exciting (but false) stateme= nts in their emails to get people to react immediately.=20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 They typically ask for information such as usernames, passwords, cre= dit card numbers, social security numbers, date of birth, etc.=20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 Don't use the links in an email, instant message, or chat to get to = any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic. =20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 Instead, call the company on the telephone, or log onto the website = directly by typing in the Web address in your browser.=20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 You should only communicate information such as credit card numbers = or account information via a secure website or the telephone.=20
=20 3D""
=20 3D""=20 		=20 =20 Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting cre= dit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser.=20
=20 3D""
=20 Additional consumer advice is available at = http://www.antiphishin= g.org/consumer_recs.html.
=20 3D""
=20 If you have more questions, please visit http://help.monster.com/besafe.
=20 3D""
=20 Contact us at http://www.monster= .com/contact.=20 =20
=20



=20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20

Monster respects your online = time and privacy. This is a service-related email to notify you of importan= t account information.=20
=20
=20 Questions? Email us directly by visiting http://www.monster.com/contact/. Please do not reply to this email.
=20
=20 To read the Monster Privacy Commitment, visit http://about.monster.com/privacy/=
=20
=20 Monster, 5 Clock Tower Place, Suite 500, Maynard, MA 01754
=20
=20 Add monster@e0.monster.com to your address book to ensure delivery of Monst= er emails. =20
=20 --uaceuace.uaceuace.alt.uaceuace.uaceuace-- newsday.com/news/local/ny-pojani0320-col,0,2271880.column Newsday.com Decisions made 9 years ago put MTA in current fix Dan Janison 9:30 PM EDT, March 19, 2009 Nine years ago, in collaboration with state officials, the mighty investment company Bear Stearns played a special role in shaping the course on which the region's transit system now finds itself. Not only did this financial titan advise the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on a five-year, $17-billion capital program, but more notably, its executives personally sold the plan to state lawmakers - helping generate commissions for the firm while temporarily funding mass transit. From today's perspective, of course, the deal represents fiscal risk and folly. Bear's collapse a year ago signaled other global financial failures to come, and the debts carried by the state-run MTA drive its latest threat of massive fare hikes and sharp service cuts. Watchdogs suggested that the Pataki administration and its sparring partners in the State Legislature were mortgaging the future. Policy makers, they believed, figured they'd derail from that track when they came to it. State Sen. Brian Foley's office yesterday cited data showing how MTA debt service payments of $609 million in 1996 have spiked to a forecast $1.5 billion in 2009. That works out to an estimated $125 million per month, said Ibrahim Kahn, spokesman for Foley (D-Blue Point). "Everyone predicted it, and it came true with a vengeance," Gene Russianoff, of the city's Straphangers' Campaign, said Tuesday, following a news conference with Gov. David A. Paterson aimed at prodding state senators to act on a painful new revenue plan. Lee Sander, the MTA's executive director, said: "In 2000, Albany put our entire capital program on a credit card." Beyond the problems that usually come with overborrowing, the due date for this huge credit card arrives at an especially uncertain time. Fiscally, all levels of governments face major pressure as the economy contracts and credit tightens. And politically, the MTA crunch hits just as Paterson struggles with his clout - and new Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith looks around for some. With Paterson well aware of the MTA problem, a commission headed by former MTA chairman Richard Ravitch called for new tolls on the East River bridges, for fare hikes on subways, buses and the Long Island Rail Road estimated at 8 percent, and for a tax on payrolls in the MTA region, which includes Long Island, the city and its northern suburbs. Without the plan, the MTA and Ravitch commission are threatening 23 percent more fare revenues and deep service cuts. Legislators say they are attempting to negotiate a deal. Smith's Democratic majority stands at a minimal 32-30. The Ravitch plan is a tough lift. The freshly defeated Republican minority, led by Dean Skelos (R- Rockville Centre), has unsurprisingly shown itself to be in no mood to help take the weight for painful measures. So while the Assembly backs a variation on the plan, the Senate majority has been stalling. First, Smith called for an audit of MTA finances. Then Finance Committee chairman Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) floated a non-starter borrowing gimmick. Then the majority submitted a plan that Paterson and the MTA say falls $1 billion short, ignores capital needs and continues to burden counties such as Nassau with big bus costs. All involved say they are trying their best for a fair fiscal plan. But as the spotlight falls on a divided Senate, the route remains murky, like everything else financial and political these days. Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc. Months After Cutbacks, M.T.A. Approves Higher Fares By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a package of fare increases on Thursday for its subways, buses and commuter railroads, the third time in three years that New Yorkers will face a sharp rise in the cost of getting around. On Dec. 30, when the increases take effect, the price of a 30-day MetroCard will rise by $15 to $104 a month, a 17 percent increase, and a single-ride ticket will go up 25 cents to $2.50. The 7-day and 30-day MetroCards for the city’s subway and bus system will remain uncapped, as transit officials acknowledged the public had little taste for an earlier proposal to restrict the number of rides that could be taken on such passes. Still, the pricing structure places the biggest burden on the subway system’s most frequent riders, the one-third of commuters who buy 30-day passes. The fare increases come months after the authority, reeling from an enormous budget gap, enacted severe service cuts that discontinued bus and subway lines throughout the city. But board members said it would be irresponsible not to raise fares, and they pointed the blame squarely at the State Legislature, which this year redirected subsidies meant for the transit agency. “Being on this board really made me stop believing in fairy tales,” said Doreen M. Frasca, an appointee of Gov. David A. Paterson. “I don’t think for a minute Albany is going to do anything for us; in fact, I think they’re going to take more.” She added: “I hate taking this vote. But at this point in time, it’s our only option.” Unlike the raucous hearings that accompanied this summer’s service cuts, the board’s hourlong debate on Thursday was marked by few outbursts or protests. The prevailing mood was one of resignation, not outrage. “We are not in a position to be able to avoid this increase,” Jay H. Walder, the authority’s chairman, said in a solemn tone as the meeting began. The new fare structure, approved by a 12-2 vote, will raise the price of tickets on Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road by 7 percent to 14 percent, depending on distance. The unlimited weekly MetroCard will cost $29, up from $27, and riders who buy a new MetroCard rather than adding money to one they already have will pay a $1 surcharge. Since its introduction in 1998, the monthly MetroCard’s price has risen 65 percent, far outpacing inflation. The 30-day pass originally cost $63 a month. Subway and bus riders will have to take 50 trips a month to justify the new $104 cost, officials said, up from 46 trips now. Overall, the fare increases will generate 7.5 percent more revenue for the troubled authority, the percentage it agreed to in a deal with the State Legislature last year. But riders’ advocates expressed dismay on Thursday that the authority was still raising fares after cutting service. “This fare plan hits our best customers with the heftiest fare hike,” said Andrew Albert, chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council. Officials defended the big increase for monthly cards, arguing that users of the 30-day pass tend to be more affluent than other riders. A proposed toll increase on the authority’s tunnels and bridges will be considered by the board on Oct. 27. One proposal would raise cash tolls by 30 percent or more, while E-ZPass users would not pay any increase. The authority has a balanced budget for 2010, but there was concern that the agency could face another crisis soon. “The business plan of the M.T.A. today is a ticking time bomb,” said Andrew M. Saul, the board’s vice chairman. He said the fare increases approved on Thursday are “just the beginning.” Mobile Phone Service Arrives in NYC Subway as MTA Prepares 6-Station Test Q By Andrea Riquier and Esmé E. Deprez - Sep 22, 2011 4:19 PM ET A New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority program that will offer mobile-phone service at subway stations will be tested in six locations starting Sept. 27, an agency official said. Service will be available to AT&T Inc. (T) and T-Mobile USA Inc. users in stations along 14th Street on the A/C/E, 1/2/3, and F/M lines; at Sixth Avenue and Eighth Avenue on the L line; and at the 23rd Street C/E stop, said an MTA official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the program. The newspaper amNewYork reported on the plan earlier today. The program, authorized in 2007, will be run by Transit Wireless LLC at no cost to the MTA. Transit Wireless, a closely held company formed specifically for the MTA project, is providing the infrastructure and service, and splitting the revenue 50-50 with the transit agency. “We want to eventually bring this service to all stations,” Aaron Donovan, an MTA spokesman, said by telephone. He said the agency also hopes to sign on additional wireless carriers. Of the subway’s 468 stations, 191 are either elevated or at street level. That will leave 271 stations to be wired for service after next week’s debut. AT&T and T-Mobile signed 10-year agreements with Transit Wireless last year. To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Riquier in New York at ariquier@bloomberg.net Esmé E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net. Swedish artist Lars Vilks, allegedly targeted by 'Jihad Jane,' says he was head-butted by protester THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tuesday, May 11th 2010, 9:38 PM Lars Vilks told The AP that a man leaped from the front row and head-butted him Tuesday. Ericson/AP Lars Vilks told The AP that a man leaped from the front row and head-butted him Tuesday. Related News * Articles * Alleged 'Jihad Jane,' accused of volunteering to kill cartoonist, pleads not guilty * 'Jihad Jane' wanna-be intended to kill cartoonist: prosecutors STOCKHOLM - A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was assaulted as furious protesters interrupted his university lecture about the limits of free speech. Lars Vilks told The Associated Press that a man leaped from the front row and head-butted him Tuesday as he was delivering his lecture at Uppsala University, breaking Vilks' glasses but leaving him uninjured. Police later said the attacker was stopped before he could reach Vilks and that the artist may have bumped into plain-clothes officers who briskly evacuated him from the room. Three people were detained, but it wasn't immediately clear whether the attacker was among them. A video clip of the incident by a Swedish newspaper showed police using pepper spray and batons to hold off an angry crowd shouting "God is great" in Arabic after Vilks was escorted out of the lecture hall. Vilks has faced numerous threats over his controversial drawing of Muhammad with a dog's body, but Tuesday's incident was the first physical assault directed against him. Earlier this year U.S. investigators said Vilks was the target of an alleged murder plot involving Colleen LaRose, an American woman who dubbed herself "Jihad Jane," and who now faces life in prison. She has pleaded not guilty. Vilks said a group of about 15 people had been shouting and trying to interrupt the lecture before the incident at the university in Uppsala, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) north of Stockholm. Some of them stormed toward the front of the room after the attack and clashed with security guards as Vilks was pulled away into a separate room, he said, describing the scene as "complete chaos." "A man ran up and threw himself over me. I was head-butted and my glasses were broken," Vilks said before hanging up for questioning by police. Uppsala police spokesman Jonas Eronen later said that the attacker was stopped by officers before he could get to Vilks. The physical contact Vilks described probably happened when police in civilian clothes evacuated the artist "in a brusque manner," Eronen said. A man and a woman were detained on suspicion of violence against police while another man was held for disturbing public order, he said. All were just under 20 years old. Uppsala University spokeswoman Pernilla Bjork said Vilks was showing an excerpt from a film by an Iranian artist about Islam and homosexuality that had been banned from YouTube when the commotion started. "It was about when Muslims and Muhammad are represented in homosexual situations," said Anders Montelius, a 23-year-old student who attended the lecture. "Some people started shouting, things happened really fast. About 10 to 15 seconds later it erupts. A guy from the front row gets up and sets upon Vilks. Several others followed this man. There was commotion and police pepper-sprayed a couple of people," Montelius told AP. "When the university person responsible for the lecture announced that the lecture was discontinued, there were cheers and chants in Arabic," he said. The video posted on the website of the newspaper Uppsala Nya Tidning showed agitated police officers clashing with protesters at the front of the lecture hall. A female police officer uses pepper spray to subdue a young man. Another youngster is wrestled to the ground. University officials said there had been a peaceful demonstration by Muslims outside the university before Vilks started to speak, and that about 260 people attended his lecture. Bjork said the university had been in contact with police and security guards before Vilks' lecture to ensure his safety. "We think it is our task as a university to be able to discuss difficult issues," she said. "We think it is very unfortunate that this has resulted in violence." Vilks made his rough sketch more than a year after 12 Danish newspaper cartoons of the prophet sparked furious protests in Muslim countries in 2006. A Swedish newspaper printed the drawing, leading to further protests, and revived a heated debate in the West and the Muslim world about religious sensitivities and the limits of free speech. It also led to numerous death threats against Vilks, who was temporarily moved to a secret location after al-Qaida in Iraq put a $100,000 bounty on his head in September 2007. According to Durban II revisionist historian Naomi Klein, the single most "courageous" event of her life -- as she touts it on her website, in magazine interviews and in her authorized biographies -- was a 1990 article that she wrote "criticizing Israel," which got her "lynched." Following is the true story, exposed for the first time by UN Watch. Naomi Klein: "What Israel has become: A country with racism and misogyny at the core of its being" (Naomi Klein, The Varsity, University of Toronto, Nov. 29, 1990, pp. 5-6) Victim to Victimizer What Israel has become: Racism and misogyny at the core of its being By Naomi Klein Varsity Staff There is name for Jews like me. I am called a “self hating Jew.” You see, Jews are not allowed to dislike other Jews, to disapprove of mainstream diaspora opinions, or to criticize Israeli policy in anything other than a strictly Jewish forum, without being accused of self hatred. Why all the guilt? Because a Jewish education is an education of fear. From early primary school we are thought that Jews have always been persecuted and hated; that Israel exists for a reason: because nobody else would take us, because they will come again. The climax came in the fifth grade on a class outing to a Holocaust exhibit. These are photographs of gas chambers, these are lampshades made of Jewish skin, this is you. However, it is not the non-Jews I fear. When I speak out on issues of misogyny in Israeli culture – of Israeli soldiers’ brutality towards Palestinian women, of the escalating incidents of battery and rape of Israeli women by Israeli men, of the abusive treatment of women who dare to protest the occupation, and of the servile attitude of the diaspora, it is only other Jews who come after me, as they have been known to condemn the many voices of dissent in our community. I am asked to believe that this country which silences me is going to save me. On the contrary, I wish to be saved from Israel. Jews made the shift from victims to victimizers with terrifying ease. Military service is compulsory in Israel. It is the backbone of the Israeli economy. Although women are also drafted, they are mainly channeled into secretarial jobs. Every Israeli man from the age of 18 to 21 serves in the army. They are taught the siege mentality and to hate Arabs. This hatred makes these lost years meaningful. These young men, who begin to feel their own strength and the strength of their country with a machine gun in their hand, are reported to go into Arab villages and gratuitously scatter garbage and broken glass for Palestinians women to pick up with their bare hands. This is above and beyond the sanctioned bulldozing of Palestinian homes, the closing of their schools, and the shooting of their children. After all, Israelis are stronger; they have guns. Israeli men reach maturity by brutalizing and degrading Palestinians, particularly Palestinian women. The effect the violence in the Israeli male’s life has on Israeli women is worsening. As the brutality of the intifada escalated, so does the brutality in Israeli homes and reports of rape. In the army, brute force rules and it appears to be crushing Israeli women. By far the most disturbing development in Israeli men’s misogyny towards Israeli women is something known to Israeli women as “Holocaust pornography” where images of emaciated women near ovens, shower heads, cattle cars, and the like are used to sell clothing and other products: “Jewish women are sexualized as Holocaust victims for Israeli men to masturbate over... the themes are fire, gas, trains, emaciation, and death,” writes Andrea Dworkin in October 1990 Ms. Magazine. A woman walking alone in Jerusalem has the freedom to choose which type of harassment she will endure depending on which part of town she is in. On one side, she can expect verbal and possible physical sexual assault from Israeli men who believe that a woman alone is asking to be raped. On another side, in the orthodox districts of the city, she can expect to be stoned by Israeli men for showing a little too much skin. But that’s not violence -- that’s religion. And when a ten year old Palestinian boy throws a rock at an Israeli soldier because he has robbed him of his freedom, he gets shot. But that’s politics, not religion. Women’s concerns about rape and brutality are considered trivial when men are busy worrying about death and war. But, in Israel, the feminist and the peace movements are closely connected. There is an organization in Israel called Women in Black. They are women in mourning until the end of the occupation. Every Friday afternoon, groups of Israeli women dressed in black stand vigil at busy intersections all over the city, holding signs which read “End the Occupation” in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. They too are stoned – for political and religious reasons. Passing cars throw fruit and insults; calling them “traitors” and to “go fuck an Arab.” Since the increased tension in the Gulf, conditions have deteriorated. Last month, right-wing Israeli protesters came to a vigil with sticks and beat the Women in Black, calling them “Hussein’s whores.” There are dialogue groups of Palestinian and Israeli women that organize conferences and teach-ins on the intifada. In Tel Aviv, a group called ”Yesh S’vul” [sic] (there’s a limit) protests near the Women in Black. They are a small group of soldiers on reserve who are refusing to serve in the occupied territories. There are Jews in Israel who are working against hatred. As for me, I know that I, like many others outside of the mainstream diaspora, am a Jew against racism and sexism. Some time ago I might have said that I am a Zionist against what Zionism has become in Israel. But for now, I am a Jew against Israel – just as Israel repeatedly proves itself to be against me. So, my profile is not about one country but, unfortunately, about two. So long as Israel continues to usurp Palestine, it will be a country with racism and misogyny at the core of its being. Until this brutality ends, Israel is a country with blood on its hands and on its profile. ___________________ The Cover Up: How Klein Reimagined Scandal into Martyrdom By Hillel Neuer Naomi Klein turned the story of her 1990 "Victim to Victimizer" article into a central episode in her life mythology, one that now features prominently in her sympathetic biographies. Consciously or subsconciously, however, she has it completely backwards. As the anti-globalization activist tells it, she wrote a normal article that in turn was met with a lunatic response. The truth is the opposite. In her various accounts, Klein describes a simple op-ed that urged Israel to “end the occupation not only for the Palestinians, but also for its own people, especially its women.” An odd use of metaphor and silly charge, perhaps, but nothing that should provoke extraordinary hurt and outrage. And in response to this non-event, as she tells it, "the Jewish community in Toronto just decided to lynch me." To discuss a response, she claims, no less than 500 Jewish students gathered for a “lynch mob” meeting. However, she showed up herself, unrecognized, and stood up and told them off. “I was 19,” Klein told the Guardian, “and it made me tough.” The experience “prepared me for controversy,” empowering her to take on multinationals and the World Bank. Heroic stuff. The facts, though, tell a very different story. Klein’s article was anything but normal. Its thesis sentence and blaring headline: “What Israel has become: Racism and misogyny at the core of its being.” “Israeli men,” she said, “reach maturity by brutalizing and degrading Palestinians.” Then there was “Israeli men’s misogyny towards Israeli women.” Most disturbing, said Klein, “is something known to Israeli women as ‘Holocaust pornography’, where images of emaciated women near ovens, shower heads, cattle cars, and the like are used to sell clothing and other products.” Jewish women, she informed her readers, “are sexualized as Holocaust victims for Israeli men to masturbate over… the themes are fire, gas, trains, emaciation, and death.” If such aberrant ads or magazines ever existed, they were well hidden. But Klein was looking to demonize—not only Israel, but Judaism, and Jews. “A Jewish education is an education of fear,” continued Klein. “Jews made the shift from victims to victimizers with terrifying ease.” “I wish to be saved from Israel,” she concluded. “I am a Jew against Israel—just as Israel repeatedly proves itself to be against me.” Interestingly, all this Goebbels-like venom—Israel as wicked, racist, and depraved in its essence—as well as the article’s hysteria, rage and paranoia, are erased from Klein’s later accounts. Is she deliberately covering up what she wrote? For a superstar author who basks in the rich glow of the mainstream media, there is certainly every incentive for her to hide the crackpot material that she actually wrote in "Victim to Victimizer." But then why dies she keep bringing it up, boasting? No, it would seem that Klein truly imagines that she never said what she said. In a 2002 interview with the counterculture Heeb magazine, Klein imagined herself as a martyr. Revealingly, she made reference to some of her incendiary accusations, but projected them as emanating from her pursuers. "The first thing that happened was that there were articles in the Jewish press, headlines like, 'Varsity Writer Calls Israel Racist and Misogynist.' I'll never forget that -- it was like a two-page spread about what a terrible person I was." Klein's memory appears to have completely repressed the fact that the newspaper had merely reported her own words and her own headline. Psychologists describe this phenomenon as the defense mechanism of denial. After years of reimagining, Klein eventually becomes appalled that anyone would accuse her of saying that Israel was "a country with racism and misogyny at the core of its being." It had to be a malicious libel thrown at her by the Toronto Jewish lynch mob. While the Canadian Jewish News did allocate one page to the episode, she was nowhere described as "a terrible person." The story quoted her article, reported the sharp reactions, and in several paragraphs gave the last word to Klein. Some lynch. It would seem that Klein has been blocking out the memory of what she wrote. And there was nothing to ever remind her, because the 1990 "Holocaust pornography" editorial had never appeared on the internet -- until UN Watch posted it now. If Klein's article was the opposite of how she later described it, her portrayal of the Jewish community's reaction is equally questionable. She tells of confronting a lynch mob, at a meeting organized by the Jewish Student Union. There were 500 people packed in the room and there was just dead silence." But is that what really happened? The Canadian Jewish News reported a December 5th meeting between 50 Jewish students and the Varsity editors, noting Klein’s attendance. It says nothing about her supposed dramatic intervention. Others present don’t recall any. Could the face-off have happened at a subsequent meeting? Perhaps, except that a key element of her story is that she was able to attend the meeting -- and hear a woman say "If I ever meet Naomi Klein, I'm going to kill her" -- because "nobody knew what I looked like." But by December 6th, everyone in the University of Toronto knew what Naomi Klein looked like. The future author of No Logo had posed on the front cover, in a rare color photo for the cash-strapped paper, wearing a baseball cap with the L.A. Raiders logo. Although the newspaper denied any connection, Jewish students saw the Klein cover as a deliberate affront to their complaints from the previous week. Some called her "Cover girl." They all knew exactly what she looked like. Copyright 2010, UN Watch June 13, 2013 Venerable Format of ‘NewsHour’ Struggles With New Era of Media By ELIZABETH JENSEN For many of its 38 years, the sober studio-interview format of the “PBS NewsHour” has served the program well, drawing viewers and corporate underwriters alike. But with a deep financing crisis forcing layoffs and other cutbacks this week, some public television employees believe that format — and a general unwillingness to embrace the digital realities facing journalism — may be jeopardizing the program’s future. “NewsHour” came under criticism in a confidential May 2012 report commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the program’s major supporters in recent years, that concluded bluntly that the program needed to aggressively “modernize news gathering production.” The report stressed the need for a major reorganization that included developing new digital platforms and clarifying its editorial focus. It also said more “decision-making transparency” was needed from MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, the profit-making company that co-produces the program for PBS. (The company is controlled by Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, its founding anchors. Washington public television station WETA is the other producer.) The pressures facing “NewsHour” are not unique. “What every traditional media organization is confronted with today is how to change profoundly to reflect the revolution in how people consume media,” said a former CNN bureau chief, Frank Sesno, now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. But many organizations have moved more quickly to adapt, equipping producers with inexpensive video cameras to reduce news gathering costs, and investing in online and mobile platforms. Mr. Sesno said that he “desperately” wants “NewsHour” to succeed. “They’ve got to figure out how to do the deeper dive and bring people along with them,” he said, by developing more of a conversation with the audience and becoming a “multimedia information experience. You can’t just be a TV show anymore.” In the year since the Gates Foundation report was delivered, the foundation, whose $3.56 million, three-year grant to “NewsHour” to cover global health expired in December 2011, has yet to return as a supporter. A foundation spokesman, Christopher Williams, said in an e-mail on Wednesday that the consultants’ report “was not conducted as a prerequisite to any further funding.” He added, however, that the foundation does not discuss “what a particular grantee’s prospects for funding might be.” A “NewsHour” spokeswoman, Anne Bell, said in an e-mail that the study was “helpful,” adding that “many of the recommendations have been acted upon” and that the program had “increased dramatically” its Web and social media initiatives. With corporate funds running short, however, the program’s financial situation has deteriorated rapidly, leaving the production company to close a gaping hole of about $7 million on a $28 million budget this year, according to public television employees familiar with the numbers. Corporate underwriting, which has declined elsewhere in public media, has fallen far short of what program officials hoped to raise, partly because the program was asking too much for sponsorships, said two public television employees. Four times in recent months, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions executives have asked PBS officials for emergency $1 million infusions so they could pay the “NewsHour” bills, the public television employees said, and they received at least $3 million. Ms. Bell said the show would close the fiscal year with a “relatively small operating deficit.” MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and WETA produce “NewsHour,” which is a nonprofit program, under an annually renewable contract. PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting contribute a portion of the program’s budget — $12.5 million this year — with the rest to be raised from corporations and foundations by the production company. PBS, in a statement from Beth Hoppe, its head of programming, declined to comment “on financial information regarding specific programs,” but said it was working with “NewsHour” to ensure that the program’s “critical services” continued. With a new fiscal year starting July 1, the program’s immediate financial squeeze will be eased, said the public television employees. But the end-of-year request for emergency funds requests revealed the intensity of the financial pressures. Although Mr. Lehrer retired from anchoring in 2011, he remains fully in charge of “NewsHour,” said the public television employees. Mr. Lehrer and Mr. MacNeil each own 16 percent of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, with the remainder held by the media giant Liberty Media. “NewsHour” did not respond to a request to interview Mr. Lehrer. This week, “NewsHour” took some steps to bring its expenses more in line with revenue. In an internal memo, Linda Winslow, its executive producer, and Bo Jones, the chief executive of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, told employees that the program would close its Denver and San Francisco offices, effective July 1. In the program’s first significant layoffs in two decades, about 15 positions are being eliminated. Terence Smith, the program’s former media reporter, who retired in 2006, said of the moves: “They are now doing the cutbacks that they needed to do four or five years ago, because this deficit is crippling and has been running year after year.” In the internal memo, Ms. Winslow and Mr. Jones said the program, which is based at WETA, also would further reduce costs through “changes in our technical production processes” to “streamline and digitize operations.” But the memo added, “Under no circumstances do we intend to abandon the mini-documentary reports that have become so critical to our broadcast.” Indeed, Mr. Lehrer, the public television employees said, has said repeatedly that he saw no need for the program to change what for years had been a successful alternative format. Outside consultants disagree. A May 2012 confidential study, from consultant Frank N. Magid Associates, concluded that viewers found the program “smarter” than other network news sources, and appreciated its “fairness, depth, original content and overall sense of purpose.” But they also felt that it “doesn’t excel for having reporters and personalities that viewers enjoy,” finding it “old-fashioned, slow-moving, even boring.” In response to a Baltimore Sun critique of the program this week, one of its anchors, the senior correspondent Gwen Ifill, defended “NewsHour,” writing, “we still stick by our core mission — to provide news and information for people who choose to know more than what their home browser page can show them.” PBS, among other changes, wants the program to choose a permanent anchor or two co-anchors, said the public television employees. When Mr. Lehrer left two years ago, he decided not to name a replacement. Instead, a handful of anchors, including Ms. Ifill and Judy Woodruff, share the two host chairs in constant rotation, further muddling the program’s identity, critics said, and adding to costs. PBS could choose not to renew the program’s contract and find a new producer. For the moment, PBS is instead investing $3 million in a new program, “PBS NewsHour Weekend,” which is expected to start in the fall, anchored by Hari Sreenivasan, a correspondent on the weekday program and its director of digital partnerships. Two different companies will produce them. The contract for the weekend program went to WNET, in New York. PBS executives have said they hoped the new program would generate new models to produce a news program less expensively, said the public television employees. ebruary 14, 2008 Scientists Find Solar System Like Ours By DENNIS OVERBYE Astronomers say they have found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system might be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought. “It looks like a scale model of our solar system,” said Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University. He led an international team of 69 professional and amateur astronomers, who announced the discovery in a news conference with reporters on Wednesday. Their results are being published Friday in the journal Science. In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star about half the mass of the Sun, at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle our own Sun. Neither of the two giant planets is a likely abode for life as we know it, but, as Dr. Gaudi pointed out, warm, rocky planets — suitable for life — could exist undetected in the inner parts of the system. “This could be a true solar system analogue,” he said. Sara Seager, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the team, said, “Right now in exoplanets we are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths.” She praised the new discovery as “a big step in finding out if our planetary system is alone.” Since 1995, around 250 so-called exoplanets have been discovered, but few of them are in systems that even faintly resemble our own. In many cases, giant Jupiter-like planets are whizzing around inside the orbit of Mercury. But are these typical of the universe? Almost all of those planets were discovered by the so-called wobble method, in which astronomers measure the gravitational tug of planets on their parent star as they whir around it. This technique is most sensitive to massive planets close to their stars. The new discovery was made by a different technique that favors planets more distant from their star. It is based on a trick of Einsteinian gravity called microlensing. If, in the ceaseless shifting of the stars, two stars should become perfectly aligned with the Earth, the gravity of the nearer star can bend and magnify the light from the more distant one, causing it to suddenly get much brighter for a few days. If the alignment is especially perfect, any big planets attending the nearer star will get into the act, adding their own little bumps to the more distant starlight. That is exactly what started happening on March 28, 2006, when a star 5,000 light years away in the constellation Scorpius began to pass in front of one 21,000 light years more distant, causing it to flash. It was picked up by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, or Ogle, a worldwide collaboration of observers who keep watch for such events. Ogle in turn immediately issued a worldwide call for continuous observations of what is now officially known as OGLE-2006-BLG-109L. The next 10 days, as Andrew Gould of Ohio State said, were “extremely frenetic.” Among those who provided crucial data and appeared as lead authors of the paper in Science were a pair of amateur astronomers from Auckland, New Zealand, Jennie McCormick and Grant Christie, both members of a group called the Microlensing Follow-Up Network, or MicroFUN. Ms. McCormick, who described herself as “an ordinary New Zealand mother,” said she had done her observing with a 10-inch Meade telescope from a shed in her back yard. Somewhat to the experimenters’ surprise, by clever manipulation they were able to dig out of the data not just the masses of the interloper star and its two planets but also rough approximations of their orbits, confirming the similarity to our own system. David Bennett of Notre Dame, said, “This event has taught us that we were able to learn more about these planets than we thought possible.” As a result, microlensing is poised to become a major new tool in the planet hunter’s arsenal, “a new flavor of the month,” in the words of Dr. Seager. The new system, she said, is just the tip of the iceberg and the odds are that a lot of the ones that will be discovered could be like ours. Only six planets, including the new ones, have been discovered by microlensing so far and the Scorpius event was the first in which the alignment of the stars was perfect enough for astronomers to detect more than one planet at once. Their success at doing just that on their first try bodes well for the future, astronomers say. Alan Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washinton, said: “The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them — solar system analogues are not rare.” November 25, 2010 With Limited Options, South Korea Shifts Military Rules By MARTIN FACKLER and MARK McDONALD SEOUL, South Korea — Responding to growing public criticism after Tuesday’s deadly attack, President Lee Myung-bak accepted the resignation Thursday of his defense minister and announced changes in the military’s rules of engagement to make it easier for the South Korean military to strike back with greater force, especially if civilians are threatened. The government also announced plans to increase the number of troops and heavy weapons on Yeonpyeong Island, where two marines and two civilians died Tuesday in an artillery fusillade from the North. But Mr. Lee, who came to office two years ago vowing to get tough with the North, has little maneuvering room in formulating a response. While the attack appears to have pushed anti-North Korean sentiment here to its highest level in years, there is little public support for taking military action against the North that might lead to an escalation of hostilities. “North Korea has nothing to lose, while we have everything to lose,” said Kang Won-taek, a professor of politics at Seoul National University. “Lee Myung-bak has no choice but to soften his tone to keep this country peaceful. It is not an appealing choice, but it is the only realistic choice.” The South’s powerful neighbor is also counseling restraint. The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said on Thursday that Beijing opposed any provocative military behavior by either side on the Korean peninsula, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. On Thursday, while North Korea warned through its official news agency of further military retaliation if provoked by South Korea, Mr. Lee said only, “We should not drop our guard in preparation for the possibility of another provocation by North Korea,” according to his chief spokesman, Hong Sang-pyo. “A provocation like this can recur any time.” The changes in the rules of engagement were similarly restrained. South Korean defenses on its five coastal islands in the Yellow Sea had been set up primarily to guard against possible amphibious landings by North Korean troops. Critics said Thursday that the military had not anticipated the possibility of an attack by North Korean artillery batteries, which are reportedly in caves along the North’s coastline. “Now an artillery battle has become the new threat, so we’re reassessing the need to strengthen defenses,” Mr. Lee told lawmakers. The new measures he outlined include doubling the number of howitzers and upgrading other weaponry. New rules of engagement will be based on whether military or civilian sites are the targets, said Mr. Hong, the presidential spokesman, adding that the move was to “change the paradigm of responding to North Korea’s provocations.” This week’s artillery attack was not the first time Mr. Lee has come under criticism for sitting on his hands in the face of a deadly provocation by the North. Two years ago, when a South Korean tourist was shot by a sentry at a North Korean mountain resort, his government’s response amounted to a slap on the wrist: suspending tours to the resort and barring South Korean civic groups from visiting the North. But the clearest case was Mr. Lee’s response in March to the North’s sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. Mr. Lee at first seemed to stall by waiting for the results of an international investigation, which took two months to conclude the ship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo. When Mr. Lee responded, it was with relatively mild measures like reducing the South’s already minuscule trade with the North, resuming the South’s cold war-era propaganda speakers along the demilitarized zone and demanding an apology. And he even backed off some of those: the speakers have yet to be turned on after North Korea threatened to shoot at them, and he dropped the apology demand as a precondition for talks. Mr. Lee was widely blamed in South Korea for having provoked the Cheonan incident by ending unconditional aid at the start of his presidency. “Before, the public saw him as too hard, and now they see him as too soft,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul. Despite public pressure to do more, Mr. Lee does not have many options for using less lethal forms of pressure on the North, whether diplomatic or economic. North Korea’s impoverished Stalinist state has already weathered years of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation. In fact, the tough economic conditions appear only to give the North additional motivation for continuing its dangerous brinkmanship, to extract aid as it faces a winter of food and fuel shortages. Analysts say the North is also using the recent provocations to burnish the military credentials of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s youngest son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un. Analysts say making sanctions effective would require greater support from China, North Korea’s traditional protector, which has so far been reluctant to tighten the screws on the North’s already decrepit economy. In recent days, Mr. Lee and President Obama have agreed to make new appeals to Chinese leaders to put more pressure on the North Korean dictator, but analysts say they are not optimistic that the Chinese will comply. Still, South Korean officials said they will urge China to act more responsibly by pressuring the North to end its attacks. They also said they will ask Beijing to more closely monitor trade with North Korea by Chinese merchants, which they said has been a route for the North to bypass international economic sanctions. Analysts say that Mr. Lee and his advisers appear to have concluded that a less confrontational stance is the only way to persuade North Korea to end its provocations. A few analysts speculated that Mr. Lee might eventually end up not far from his liberal predecessors like former President Roh Moo-hyun, who used economic aid to appease the North and reduce tensions on the peninsula. “Anyone would conclude that the peaceful approach is best to reverse the situation,” said Moon Jung-in, a politics professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and a former adviser in the Roh administration. “A hard-line approach is not a real option.” Su-Hyun Lee contributed reporting. Anti-semitism in Norway I’ve written here previously about the virulence of anti-Semitism in Norway. Now the estimable Hans Rustad of document.no – who these days is standing up almost alone against the repulsive effort to silence critics of Islam and multiculturalism after the July 22 massacres in and near Oslo – has posted excerpts from reports sent by the U.S. Embassy in Oslo to the State Department about attitudes toward Jews in Norway. Some highlights: “Anti-Semitism in Norway, and the expression of anti-Semitic comments, has increased since the Gaza war. The small Norwegian Jewish community is wary of being targeted, and ‘Jew’ has become more popular as an epithet.” “On December 30 in a television debate program, when asked about the prospect for progress in the Middle East with Obama leading negotiations, Willoch said, ‘it doesn’t look good, because he has chosen a Jew as a chief of staff.’” “Ole Moen is the most frequently quoted academic on US policy. During the election, he predicted that Americans would never elect either a black man or a woman due to the racism and sexism that he believes permeates American society. On January 9 Moen said Obama ‘has appointed many Jews and pro-Israel people in his administration.…This makes me have little hope for significant change (in Middle East policy.)’” “Anecdotal evidence shows the small Jewish community in Norway, comprising about 1000 members, are experiencing a growing fear of rising anti-Semitism. When attempting to write a January 10 story about how Jewish families were dealing with the fallout from the war in Gaza, a major newspaper found that most of those contacted refused to be interviewed, because they were afraid of being targeted if they appeared in the paper. One orthodox Jewish family in Oslo chose not to take their children to synagogue, as their appearance on the street makes them especially vulnerable. Some Jewish parents are walking with their children to school as an added security measure. There have been reports of bullying at school, where Jewish children are subject to insults. A recent expose on anti-Semitism in a major paper found that ‘Jew’ has become an epithet among both Muslim and Christian teenagers. One Muslim teenager interviewed commented that his friends say that the Israelis ‘aren’t people.’ When pressed by the reporter on what that meant, he responded, ‘well of course we know they’re people, but when we say they’re inhuman, we mean they aren’t good people.’” (And yet we are told ad nauseum that Muslims are today’s Jews.) “The chief Rabbi of the Oslo Synagogue reportedly receives a pile of hate mail each day. Typical salutations on such mail are, ‘Murderers,’ ‘Maybe Hitler was right,’ ‘May hatred toward you Jews grow and strengthen,’ and so forth.” “According to an Israeli embassy official, during a dinner in honor of a visiting member of the Knesset, some Jewish Israeli-Norwegian married couples commented that among people like themselves, many were talking of moving to Israel, because they did not want to expose their children to fear and hatred.” “In mid-January, a first secretary at the Norwegian embassy in Saudi Arabia used the MFA’s [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] email system to send out a fundraising email appeal for Gaza with images comparing Israeli soldiers with Nazi soldiers, urging recipients to forward it as a chain letter. The MFA said it would be dealt with as an internal personnel matter and there has been no further public information given on the disposition of the case.” One of the reports cites an “anti-war parade that ended with a full-scale riot in front of the Israeli embassy” and that featured “[c]ries of, ‘Kill the Jews!’” The report also notes that a “pro-Israel demonstration in Bergen was cancelled because police told organizers that they could not protect participants.” It is also pointed out that the Norwegian media encourage “outrage over Israeli policy” and thus shape “an atmosphere in which anti-Semitism is easier for ordinary Norwegians to express,” though “there is no corresponding freedom to attack Hamas.” None of which is news to those of us who have lived in Oslo for years and have been relatively awake. But it is good to know that the U.S. Embassy is aware of what’s going on, and cares. (front page graphic found here) Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age * Sign In to E-Mail This * Print * Save Article Tools Sponsored By By NOAH FELDMAN Published: October 29, 2006 I. Skip to next paragraph Illustration by James Victore For nearly 50 years, worries about a nuclear Middle East centered on Israel. Arab leaders resented the fact that Israel was the only atomic power in the region, a resentment heightened by America’s tacit approval of the situation. But they were also pretty certain that Israel (which has never explicitly acknowledged having nuclear weapons) would not drop the bomb except as a very last resort. That is why Egypt and Syria were unafraid to attack Israel during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. “Israel will not be the first country in the region to use nuclear weapons,” went the Israelis’ coy formula. “Nor will it be the second.” Today the nuclear game in the region has changed. When the Arab League’s secretary general, Amr Moussa, called for “a Middle East free of nuclear weapons” this past May, it wasn’t Israel that prompted his remarks. He was worried about Iran, whose self-declared ambition to become a nuclear power has been steadily approaching realization. The anti-Israel statements of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, coupled with Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas, might lead you to think that the Arab states would welcome Iran’s nuclear program. After all, the call to wipe the Zionist regime from the map is a longstanding cliché of Arab nationalist rhetoric. But the interests of Shiite non-Arab Iran do not always coincide with those of Arab leaders. A nuclear Iran means, at the very least, a realignment of power dynamics in the Persian Gulf. It could potentially mean much more: a historic shift in the position of the long-subordinated Shiite minority relative to the power and prestige of the Sunni majority, which traditionally dominated the Muslim world. Many Arab Sunnis fear that the moment is ripe for a Shiite rise. Iraq’s Shiite majority has been asserting the right to govern, and the lesson has not been lost on the Shiite majority in Bahrain and the large minorities in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah of Jordan has warned of a “Shiite crescent” of power stretching from Iran to Lebanon via Iraq and (by proxy) Syria. But geopolitics is not the only reason Sunni Arab leaders are rattled by the prospect of a nuclear Iran. They also seem to be worried that the Iranians might actually use nuclear weapons if they get them. A nuclear attack on Israel would engulf the whole region. But that is not the only danger: Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere fear that the Iranians might just use a nuclear bomb against them. Even as Iran’s defiance of the United States and Israel wins support among some Sunnis, extremist Sunnis have been engaging in the act of takfir, condemning all Shiites as infidels. On the ground in Iraq, Sunni takfiris are putting this theory into practice, aiming at Shiite civilians and killing them indiscriminately. Shiite militias have been responding in kind, and massacres of Sunni civilians are no longer isolated events. Adding the nuclear ingredient to this volatile mix will certainly produce an arms race. If Iran is going to get the bomb, its neighbors will have no choice but to keep up. North Korea, now protected by its own bomb, has threatened proliferation — and in the Middle East it would find a number of willing buyers. Small principalities with huge U.S. Air Force bases, like Qatar, might choose to rely on an American protective umbrella. But Saudi Arabia, which has always seen Iran as a threatening competitor, will not be willing to place its nuclear security entirely in American hands. Once the Saudis are in the hunt, Egypt will need nuclear weapons to keep it from becoming irrelevant to the regional power balance — and sure enough, last month Gamal Mubarak, President Mubarak’s son and Egypt’s heir apparent, very publicly announced that Egypt should pursue a nuclear program. Given the increasing instability of the Middle East, nuclear proliferation there is more worrisome than almost anywhere else on earth. As nuclear technology spreads, terrorists will enjoy increasing odds of getting their hands on nuclear weapons. States — including North Korea — might sell bombs or give them to favored proxy allies, the way Iran gave Hezbollah medium-range rockets that Hezbollah used this summer during its war with Israel. Bombing through an intermediary has its advantages: deniability is, after all, the name of the game for a government trying to avoid nuclear retaliation. Proliferation could also happen in other ways. Imagine a succession crisis in which the Saudi government fragments and control over nuclear weapons, should the Saudis have acquired them, falls into the hands of Saudi elites who are sympathetic to Osama bin Laden, or at least to his ideas. Or Al Qaeda itself could purchase ready-made bombs, a feat technically much less difficult than designing nuclear weapons from scratch. So far, there are few nuclear powers from whom such bombs can be directly bought: as of today, only nine nations in the world belong to the nuclear club. But as more countries get the bomb, tracing the seller will become harder and harder, and the incentive to make a sale will increase. II. The prospect of not just one Islamic bomb, but many, inevitably concentrates the mind on how Muslims — whether Shiite or Sunni — might use their nuclear weapons. In the mid-1980’s, when Pakistan became the first Islamic state to go nuclear, it was still possible to avoid asking the awkward question of whether there was something distinctive about Islamic belief or practice that made possession of nuclear technology especially worrisome. Most observers assumed that Islamic states could be deterred from using nuclear force just like other states: by the threat of massive retaliation. During the last two decades, however, there has been a profound change in the way violence is discussed and deployed in the Muslim world. In particular, we have encountered the rise of suicide bombing. In historic terms, this development is new and unexpected. Suicide bombing has no traditional basis in Islam. As a technique, it was totally absent from the successful Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union. Although suicide bombing as a tool of stateless terrorists was dreamed up a hundred years ago by the European anarchists immortalized in Joseph Conrad’s “Secret Agent,” it became a tool of modern terrorist warfare only in 1983, when Shiite militants blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon. Since then, suicide bombing has spread through the Muslim world with astonishing speed and on a surprising course. The vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice, the formal videotaped preconfession of faith, the technological tinkering to increase deadliness — all are now instantly recognizable to every Muslim. And as suicide bombing has penetrated Islamic cultural consciousness, its list of targets has steadily expanded. First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly Israelis, including women and children. From Lebanon and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to Iraq, where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly been Shiite Iraqis. The newest testing ground is Afghanistan, where both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodox Sunni Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Overall, the trend is definitively in the direction of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. By a conservative accounting, more than three times as many Iraqis have been killed by suicide bombings in the last 3 years as have Israelis in the last 10. Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence — not just to frightened Westerners but also to Muslims themselves. What makes suicide bombing especially relevant to the nuclear question is that, by design, it unsettles the theory of deterrence. When the suicide bomber dies in an attack, he means to send the message “You cannot stop me, because I am already willing to die.” To make the challenge to deterrence even more stark, a suicide bomber who blows up a market or a funeral gathering in Iraq or Afghanistan is willing to kill innocent bystanders, including fellow Muslims. According to the prevailing ideology of suicide bombing, these victims are subjected to an involuntary martyrdom that is no less glorious for being unintentional. So far, the nonstate actors who favor suicide bombing have limited their collateral damage to those standing in the way of their own bombs. But the logic of sacrificing other Muslims against their own wills could be extended to the national level. If an Islamic state or Islamic terrorists used nuclear weapons against Israel, the United States or other Western targets, like London or Madrid, the guaranteed retaliation would cost the lives of thousands and maybe millions of Muslims. But following the logic of suicide bombing, the original bomber might reason that those Muslims would die in God’s grace and that others would live on to fight the jihad. No state in the Muslim world has openly embraced such a view. But after 9/11, we can no longer treat the possibility as fanciful. Raising the question of Islamic belief and the bomb, however, is not a substitute for strategic analysis of the rational interests of Islamic governments. Like other states, Islamic states act on the basis of ordinary power politics as much as or more than on the basis of religious motivation. Pakistan, which tested a series of warheads in 1998, at the height of tensions with India, has not used its atomic power as a tool of the faithful in a global jihad. The proliferation operation spearheaded by the nuclear scientist — and sometime Pakistani national hero — Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan appears to have been based on a combination of national interest and greed, not on religious fervor. Khan found buyers in Iran and Libya, but also in decidedly non-Islamic North Korea. (In a twist much stranger than fiction, Saddam Hussein apparently turned down the offer.) Some observers think that Iran, too, wants the bomb primarily to improve its regional position and protect itself against regime change — not to annihilate Israel. According to this view, Iran’s nuclear push reflects a drive to what is sometimes called national greatness and might more accurately be defined as the ability of a country to thumb its nose at the United States without fear of major repercussions. A televised pageant hastily arranged to celebrate Iran’s atomic program in April of this year featured traditional Persian dancing and colorful local garb intermixed with make-believe vials of enriched uranium. To an Iranian audience accustomed to decoding official symbols, these references were nationalist, not pan-Islamic. (They were also subtly subversive of the mullahs: singing and dancing are not favored forms of expression in the clerical enclave of Qom.) But at the same time, Ahmadinejad has emphasized Iran’s pan-Islamic aspirations to act on behalf of Muslims everywhere. An emerging nuclear power needs friends. Right now Iran wants to reduce, not promote, division between Sunnis and Shiites — and promoting broader “Islamic” interests by going after Israel is one way to lessen Sunni fears about Iran’s rise. Ahmadinejad has put his money where his mouth is, providing Hezbollah with medium-range missiles — though apparently not chemical warheads — to use against Israel. The nationalist language he has sometimes used at home may be a cover for sincerely held pan-Islamic ends — a version of the old revolutionary strategy of making nationalist claims in order to attract the support of those fellow Iranians who do not respond well to Islamist ideology. That it is convenient for Iran to emphasize Islamic unity does not mean that at least some of its leaders do not believe in it as a motivating goal.+ It is common among foreign-policy realists to suppose that a country acting on nationalist motives is easier to deter than a country moved by religious ones. There is no especially strong evidence for this assumption — plenty of nationalist regimes have done crazy things when they logically should have been deterred — but the claim has a common-sense ring to it. Nationalists care about peoples and states, which need to be alive to prosper. It is a basic tenet of nationalism that there is nothing higher than the nation-state itself, the pinnacle of a people’s self-expression. Religious thinkers, on the other hand, believe almost by definition that there is something in heaven greater than government here on earth. Under the right circumstances, they might sacrifice lives — including their own — to serve the divine will as they interpret it. III. We urgently need to know, then, what Islam says about the bomb. Of course there is no single answer to this question. The world’s billion-plus Muslims differ regarding many aspects of their 1,400-year-old religious tradition. Furthermore, nuclear weapons are a relatively new technology, unforeseen by the Prophet and unmentioned in the Koran. Nevertheless, contemporary Muslims are engaged in interpreting their tradition to ascertain how and when nuclear power may be used. Their writings, contained in fatwas and treatises that can be found on the Web and in print, tell a fascinating and disturbing story. The Islamic discussion of nuclear weapons is profoundly intertwined with a parallel discussion of suicide bombing that is also taking place in the Muslim world. Suicide bombing and nuclear weapons typically kill without discrimination, murdering soldiers or civilians, men or women or children. And using nuclear force against another nuclear power can be suicidal, in the broad sense that retaliation may destroy the nation that attacked first. Beyond these commonalities is the fact that the rise of suicide bombing is driving a historic reconsideration of what might be called the Islamic ethics of violence. To consider Islam and the bomb today must thus inevitably draw us into the complex legal and political thinking of those Muslim authorities who justify the use of force. The story starts with traditional Islamic law. The Shariah never followed the Roman adage that in war the laws are silent. Because jihad is a pillar of Islam, and because in Islam God’s word takes legal form, the classical scholars devoted considerable care to identifying the laws of jihad. In common with the just-war doctrine developed in Christian Europe, the law of jihad governed when it was permissible to fight and what means could lawfully be adopted once warfare had begun. There were basic ground rules about who was fair game. “A woman was found killed in one of the battles fought by the Messenger of God,” runs a report about the Prophet Muhammad considered reliable and binding by the Muslim scholars. “So the Messenger of God forbade the killing of women and children.” This report was universally understood to prohibit the deliberate killing of noncombatant women and children. Some scholars interpreted it to mean that anyone incapable of warfare should be protected and so extended the ban to the elderly, the infirm and even male peasants, who as a rule did not fight. Muslims living among the enemy were also out of bounds. These rather progressive principles were broadly accepted by the Islamic legal authorities, Sunni and Shiite alike. For well over a thousand years, no one seriously questioned them. Such black-and-white rules were well suited to the hand-to-hand or horse-to-horse combat characteristic of limited medieval wars. A few quirky challenges did arise, and the Muslim lawyers had to deal with them. The great theologian and jurist al-Ghazali, who wrote in the 11th and 12th centuries and was widely noted for his revival of religious piety and his skepticism of secular philosophy, dealt with the problem of human shields. He ruled that if the enemy drove captured Muslims before him, the Muslim army could still fight back, even if it might mean killing some of those Muslims. The reason he gave was that “we know that the law intends minimizing killing.” There was also the catapult — precursor of artillery and air power — which was capable of sending a burning projectile into a populated city, where the resulting fire might kill women or children. Authorities differed on whether that tactic was permissible. Some disallowed the catapult when children or Muslim captives were in the city. In support, they cited a verse from the Koran that reads, “Had they been separated clearly, then We would have chastised the unbelievers among them with a painful chastisement.” According to this school of thought, the “separation” of permissible targets (i.e., non-Muslim men) from impermissible targets is the precondition for a general attack. Another school of thought, by contrast, permitted the use of the catapult regardless of collateral damage in order to serve the general interest of the Muslims. No law can exist for a millennium without being broken, and there are scattered historical reports, mostly from Christian chroniclers, of Muslim forces acting outside the bounds of lawful jihad, without the authorization of the scholars. Men were always considered legitimate targets, and Muslim armies sometimes slaughtered them just as Muslims could be slaughtered by their enemies. Remarkably enough, though, the legal principles of jihad protecting women, children and fellow Muslims survived well into the modern era, when the secular regimes of the Muslim world began to fight according to secular ideas. The World War I Armenian genocide, which took place in the last, secularizing gasp of the declining Ottoman Empire, was the first really substantial systematic violation of the ban on killing women and children in recorded Islamic history. In the bloody 20th century, when mass exterminations took place in Europe, Africa and Asia, Muslim states had a relatively better record, marred of course by Saddam Hussein’s gassing of the Kurds. And there have been the genocidal killings in Darfur in this new century. Even these horrific events, however, were not dignified by the claim that they were permitted under the law of jihad. IV. The last two decades have seen a challenge to this Islamic tradition of warfare under law, a challenge driven mostly by the attempt to justify suicide bombing despite its evident inconsistency with Islamic tradition. On the subject of suicide, the Koran could hardly be clearer: “Do not kill yourselves; for surely God has been merciful to you.” Faced with this explicit text, the solution of the militant Islamist ideologues has been to avoid the category of suicide altogether and to treat the bomber as a martyr rather than as one who has taken his own life. This interpretation is not very convincing in historical terms: martyrdom classically meant that another person killed the Muslim warrior, not that he pushed the button himself. Nevertheless, many Muslims now seem to find the argument convincing. Even among rather secular Muslims, it has become standard to refer to suicide bombers as martyrs. The killing of women, children and Muslim men, however, has proved harder to explain away as a permissible exercise of jihad. The reaction to 9/11, which has (so far) been the high-water mark of suicide bombing, illustrates the nature of the difficulty of reconciling suicide bombing with Islamic law. One problem concerns the offensive nature of the attack at a time when the United States was not at war with any Muslim entity. Offensive jihad requires the authorization of a legitimate Muslim leader, absent on 9/11. A more serious concern was the obvious reality that the 9/11 attacks were certain to kill — and did kill — women, children and Muslims, all in direct contravention of classical jihad principles. Since the whole point of 9/11 was to announce and embody jihad on the international stage, the attacks quickly became the centerpiece of a high-stakes debate about whether they did or did not qualify as legitimate acts of jihad. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, it was sometimes asserted in the West that there were no Muslim voices condemning the attacks. This was never true. Prominent Muslim scholars expressed their disapprobation in public arenas like television and the Internet. These included senior Sunni scholars like the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia and the head of Al-Azhar, in Egypt, nominally the flagship institution of Sunni higher learning — who gave a news conference. More popular figures, like Al Jazeera’s resident cleric, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, explained that Islam “considers the attack on innocent human beings a grave sin.” Shiite scholars also spoke out, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. The position of the Muslim scholars and observers who condemned the 9/11 attacks was simple and consistent across the Sunni-Shiite divide: this was not jihad but an unlawful use of violence. Offensive jihad was prohibited in the absence of formal authorization by a Muslim leader. But even if the attacks could somehow be construed as defensive, the perpetrators of 9/11 broke the rules with their willingness to kill women and children. In confident and insistent tones, these critics cited the classical scholars and insisted that nothing in Islamic law could justify the tactics used by Al Qaeda. Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, the Lebanese cleric whose spiritual authority is recognized by Hezbollah, gave an interview to the Beirut newspaper Al Safir in which he asserted that given their impermissible choice of targets, the 9/11 bombers were not martyrs but “merely suicides.” At the same time, it is important to note that in 2001 few prominent Muslim scholars — the Saudi grand mufti was the main exception — condemned the use of suicide bombings in all circumstances. Fadlallah approved the attack on the U.S. Marines in 1983 and, according to the United States, played a role in ordering it. Qaradawi, whose television presence gives him reason to stay within the Islamist mainstream, distinguished the 9/11 attacks from the permissible defensive jihad of the Palestinians. He was happy to praise a God who “through his infinite wisdom ... has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have, and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do.” Qaradawi has also repeated the common view that the killing of Israeli women is justified on the grounds that all Israelis must serve in the military, and so no Israeli is a true noncombatant: “An Israeli woman is not like women in our societies, because she is a soldier.” The equivocation by Muslim scholars with respect to the technique of suicide bombing reflected the reality that throughout the Muslim world, Palestinian suicide bombers were by 2001 identified as martyrs dying in a just cause. This, in turn, was the natural outgrowth of the decades before suicide bombing, when Palestinian terrorists were applauded for killing Israeli civilians, including women and children. Given that embracing Palestinian suicide bombing had become a widespread social norm, it would have been essentially unthinkable for an important Muslim scholar to condemn the practice without losing his standing among Muslims worldwide. In the Islamic world, as in the U.S. Supreme Court, the legal authorities cannot get too far away from their public constituency without paying a price. What happened, in other words, is that without the scholars paying too much attention to the question, the killing of Israeli women and children had become a kind of exception to the ordinary laws of jihad. Opportunists like bin Laden then began to widen the loophole to include new victims. With respect to the unauthorized nature of his offensive jihad, bin Laden asserted that in fact the attacks were defensive, since in his mind the U.S. was occupying the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia — just as Israel was occupying the Muslim land of Palestine. Once all of Saudi Arabia was placed on a par with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, traditionally closed to non-Muslims, the presence of American soldiers anywhere on the Arabian Peninsula (even if their presence was with the permission of the Saudi government) could be depicted as a profanation, a violation of the Prophet’s deathbed directive to “banish the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula.” Bin Laden was embroidering on the theories of his onetime mentor Abdullah Azzam, the intellectual godfather of Al Qaeda. Azzam was a Palestinian Islamist who made his way to Afghanistan via Saudi Arabia and established the so-called Bureau of Services to channel Arab youth into the Afghan jihad. As Azzam trod his personal path from Palestinian militancy to universal pan-Islamic jihadism, he wrote an influential treatise called “Defense of Muslim Lands.” In it, Azzam argued that not a single hand span of Muslim territory anywhere could ever be ceded to the enemy “because the land belongs to Allah and to Islam.” Though Azzam would never have acknowledged it, his account of the divine ownership of Muslim lands was probably influenced — unconsciously, to be sure — by religious-Zionist claims about the holiness of the Land of Israel. When it came to the killing of civilians, bin Laden’s thought developed more gradually. In early pronouncements, before 9/11, he spoke as if the killing of women and children was inherently an atrocity. “Nor should one forget,” he admonished an interviewer in 1996, “the deliberate, premeditated dropping of the H bombs [sic] on cities with their entire populations of children, elderly and women, as was the case with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” After 9/11, however, the argument changed. Now bin Laden began to suggest that American civilians were fair game. He could not argue that like Israelis, all Americans were subject to mandatory military service. Instead he proposed that because “the American people are the ones who choose their government by their own free will,” and because they “have the ability and choice to refuse the policies of their government,” attacks on American civilians were justified. Voting was now playing the role for Americans that military service played in the case of Israelis: the active step transforming civilians into fair game. Such an appeal to collective responsibility was, however, pretty weak in Islamic legal terms. It might suffice for bin Laden’s videotaped self-justifications, and it might salve the consciences of potential jihadis hoping to join the rank and file of Al Qaeda. But it would never satisfy serious students of classical Islamic law, who found the 9/11 attacks problematic from an Islamic legal perspective. In Saudi Arabia in particular, radical Muslim scholars with much more learning than bin Laden have sought to develop legally persuasive justifications for civilian killings. Probably the most sophisticated effort from a legal standpoint is a document titled “A Treatise on the Law of the Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction Against the Unbelievers,” written in 2003 by a brilliant Saudi dissident named Sheik Nasir bin Hamad al-Fahd. (Fahd, a theorist rather than an activist, is currently back in prison, as he has been off and on for almost a decade.) The treatise begins with the assumption that the world’s Muslims are under attack. But how are today’s Muslims supposed to defend themselves, given their military inferiority? Fahd’s response is that, if they have no other choice, they may use any means necessary — including methods that would otherwise violate the laws of jihad. “If the unbelievers can be repelled . . . only by using” weapons of mass destruction, then “their use is permissible, even if you kill them without exception.” Lest his argument prove too much, Fahd tempers it by the claim that the Muslims fighting the jihad may not inflict disproportionately more harm on the enemy than the enemy has inflicted on them. That raises the question of the extent of American guilt. “Some Brothers have added up the number of Muslims killed directly or indirectly by [American] weapons and come up with a figure of nearly ten million,” the treatise states. This total, Fahd concludes, would authorize the use of weapons of mass destruction to kill 10 million Americans: indeed, “it would be permissible with no need for further [legal] argument.” (The number is never explained or analyzed, and you might assume that it was meant to correspond very roughly to the population of New York.) Fahd’s arguments sit uneasily with the classical Islamic discussions of the laws of jihad. The classical Islamic law never explicitly says that women and children may be intentional targets if it is the only way to win the jihad. It does not allow violations of the law just because the enemy has broken the rules or killed many Muslims. So the treatise must fall back on whatever evidence it can muster from the classical sources that seems to modify the basic rules. The catapult rears its head and is cited as precedent for nonspecific killing. The right to fight even when Muslim hostages may be killed is brought out as proof of the permissibility of collateral damage when there is no other choice. The legal arguments in use here are stronger than bin Laden’s makeweights, but they, too, would probably not be sufficient on their own to justify the deviation from the legal traditions of jihad wrought by today’s jihadis. The notion that it’s right because it’s necessary is doing the real work, and old-fashioned legal arguments are following along. It is no accident that the argument from necessity has been so prominent in modern Western writing about modern warfare in general and the nuclear bomb in particular. If the technology of mass destruction can be exported, why not the justification that comes with it? Within the world of radical Islam, there are those who believe that the erosion of the laws of jihad has gone too far. There are reports of difficulty recruiting foreign candidates for suicide missions directed at Iraqi civilians. The debate about how jihad may be prosecuted is not over by any means. But it is an unavoidable fact that the classic restrictions on the killing of women, children and Muslims in jihad have been deeply undermined in the last decade. V. If the Islamic laws of war are under revision, or at least the subject of intense debate, what does that mean for the question of the Islamic bomb? The answer is that the expanding religious sanction for violence once thought unacceptable opens the way for new kinds of violence to be introduced and seen as legitimate in turn. First Israeli women and children became acceptable targets; then Americans; then Shiites; and now Sunnis of unstinting orthodoxy. It would seem that no one is out of bounds. It is therefore now possible to imagine that the classical Islamic principles governing war would not be applied even by a self-consciously Islamic regime deciding when and if to detonate a nuclear device. The traditional ban on killing women, children and fellow Muslims would have gone a long way toward banning most potential uses of nuclear power by a sincerely Islamic state actor. As those prohibitions have eroded, the reassurance that might be afforded by a state’s Islamic commitments has waned. This means that a nuclear Islamic state would be at least as willing to use its weapons as a comparable non-Islamic state. But would an Islamic state be prepared to take the jihad to the enemy even if it would result in what amounts to collective suicide through the destruction of the state and its citizens? If the leaders of Iran or some future leaders of a radicalized, nuclear Saudi Arabia shared the aspiration to martyrdom of so many young jihadis around the world, might they be prepared to attack Israel or the United States, even if the inevitable result were the martyrdom of their entire people? The answer depends to a large degree on whether you consider Islam susceptible to the kind of apocalyptic, millennial thought that might lead whole peoples, rather than just individuals, into suicidal behavior. It is important to note that for all his talk of the war between civilizations, bin Laden has never spoken of the end of days. For him, the battle between the Muslims and the infidels is part of earthly human life, and has indeed been with us since the days of the Prophet himself. The war intensifies and lessens with time, but it is not something that occurs out of time or with the expectation that time itself will stop. Bin Laden and his sympathizers want to re-establish the caliphate and rule the Muslim world, but unlike some earlier revivalist movements within Sunni Islam, they do not declare their leader as the mahdi, or guided one, whose appearance will usher in a golden age of justice and peace to be followed by the Day of Judgment. From this perspective, the utter destruction of civilization would be a mistake, not the fulfillment of the divine plan. Even the most radical Sunni theorists of jihad invoke a passage from the Koran according to which civilization itself — “the crops and the cattle” — must not and cannot be destroyed completely. Bin Laden might seem to have few qualms about killing millions of Americans or other Westerners. He might well use a nuclear device if he gambled that there would be no enemy for the United States to bomb in retaliation. But even he might not be prepared to unleash a global nuclear conflagration on the expectation that a better order would emerge once many millions of Muslims and infidels died. (Bin Laden has called for Muslims to acquire nuclear weapons, and in the 1990’s reportedly tried to acquire them himself — but there is little hard evidence that he has made subsequent efforts in that direction.) With respect to Shiite eschatology, there is greater reason for concern. Iran’s Shiism is of the “Twelver” variety, so called because the 12th imam in the line of succession from the Prophet disappeared into a state of occultation — or being hidden — from which he is expected to return as the mahdi. Ayatollah Khomeini played on the messianic overtones of this belief during the Iranian revolution, in which some of his followers went so far as to hint that he might be the returning imam. Moktada al-Sadr’s Shiite militia in Iraq is called Army of the Mahdi. Recently, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, contributed to renewed focus on the mahdi, by saying publicly that the mission of the Islamic revolution in Iran is to pave the way for the mahdi’s return, and by visiting the mosque at Jamkaran, on the outskirts of Qom, where, according to one tradition, the vanished imam was last seen. Some reports suggest that youth religion in Iran in increasingly focused on veneration of the vanished imam. Islam has a vision of the end of days, with wars between the faithful and the tribes of Gog and Magog (Yuj and Majuj in their Arabic incarnation). Twelver Shiism is, at its core, an eschatological faith, focused on the ultimate return of the imam-mahdi, who will restore the Shiites to their rightful place and redeem their generations of suffering. Since the vanished imam is by tradition a human who has never died, but remains in occultation, he is also believed to affect the course of events even from his hidden place. And Shiite tradition fills in the picture of the mahdi’s return with an elaborate account of signs that will herald the event, including advance messengers, earthquakes and bloodshed. But belief in redemption — even accompanied by wars and death and the defeat of the infidels — need not translate into a present impulse to create a violent crisis that would precipitate the messianic situation. Like their Jewish counterparts, Shiite religious authorities have traditionally sought to resist speculation about the imminence of a messianic return. Shiite messianic thought is less focused than its messianic Christian counterpart on generating global crisis and letting God sort things out. Khomeini himself believed that the mahdi’s advent could be hastened — but by social justice, not by provoking war. This put him on the activist side of Shiite teaching about the mahdi, much as he was also an activist about the exercise of worldly power by the mullahs. A popular revolutionary slogan urged the imam’s coming but asserted that Khomeini would govern alongside him. Other Shiite thinkers, by contrast, take a more fatalist stance, and prefer to believe that the mahdi’s coming cannot be hastened by human activity — a view that corresponds loosely to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s belief, with regard to Iraq and elsewhere, that the clerics should not themselves govern. One small, semi-secret Iranian organization, the Hojjatiya Society, was banned and persecuted by Khomeini’s government in part for its quiescent view that the mahdi’s arrival could not be hastened. Ahmadinejad is not the only or even the most important player in Iran’s nuclear game. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, still makes the ultimate decisions on armaments and other matters, and there are numerous factions in the country with opposed interests and ideology and goals. Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad has in some respects succeeded in making the nuclear issue his own, and as a result his personal views about the end of days have been the subject of much speculation and innuendo, inside Iran and out. The Mideast scholar Bernard Lewis, in a recent Wall Street Journal column, hinted darkly and without much evidence that Ahmadinejad might be planning a nuclear attack on Israel for the Night of Power (this year it fell on Aug. 22), when the Prophet Muhammad made his mystical journey to the Furthest Mosque, associated in tradition with al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. Rumors, possibly spread by Ahmadinejad’s enemies, have tied him to the outlawed Hojjatiya — a link mistakenly interpreted outside Iran as evidence that he might want to bring back the imam by violence, rather than that he might prefer to wait piously and prepare for the imam’s eventual return on his own schedule. It is of course impossible to gauge the man’s religious sensibilities perfectly. Yet the relative absence of a contemporary Shiite trend to messianic brinkmanship suggests that Ahmadinejad’s recent emphasis on the mahdi may be interpreted more in terms of an attempt to summon Khomeini’s legacy and Iran’s revolutionary moment than as a desperate willingness to bring the nation to the edge of war. When Ahmadinejad invoked the mahdi in his now-famous letter to George Bush, he seemed to be using the doctrine in ecumenical terms, emphasizing the Islamic tradition that Jesus — revered as a prophet, though not as the Son of God — will return alongside the mahdi and govern in tandem with him. So although a renewed Shiite messianism does create some cause for concern about the potential uses of an Iranian bomb — in particular because it suggests that Ahmadinejad may be more a utopian than a realist — it is almost certainly a mistake to anticipate that Iran would use its nuclear power in a way that would provoke large-scale retaliation and assured self-destruction. Iranian leaders have been more than ready to sacrifice their own citizens in large numbers. During the Iran-Iraq war, major efforts went into recruiting young boys to the Basij militias, which were then sent to the front lines on what were essentially suicide missions. Religion played the central part in motivating the teenage soldiers, and it is reasonable to believe that religion helped salve the consciences of those who ordered these children into battle. Yet even this discounting of the value of human life — in a war started by Saddam Hussein, not by Iran — fell short of voluntarily putting an entire nation at risk. Ahmadinejad surely understands the consequences of using a nuclear bomb, and Shiite Islam, even in its messianic incarnation, still falls short of inviting nuclear retaliation and engendering collective suicide. VI. These worries about an Islamic bomb raise the question of why we trust any nation with the power that a nuclear capacity confers. Why, for instance, do we trust ourselves, given that we remain the only nation actually to have used nuclear weapons? The standard answer to why we keep our nuclear bombs — a response developed during the cold war — is that we must have the capability to deter anyone who might attack us first. The promise of mutually assured destruction was its own kind of collective suicide pact, albeit one supposed to scare both sides out of pushing the button. That is why, throughout the heyday of the unilateral disarmament movement, critics of this justification pointed out that our threat was only credible if we were, in fact, prepared to kill millions of civilians in a rapid act of retaliation. If this kind of killing was morally unjustified, went their argument, then the threat to use it was also immoral. The truth is that we hold on to our nuclear capability not only as a matter of deterrence but also to maintain our own global strategic position. If we do not want Islamic states — or anyone else for that matter — to have a nuclear capability, it is not necessarily because we consider them especially likely to bring on their own destruction by using it. It is, rather, that we do not want to cede some substantial chunk of our own global power to them. This principle — if it is a principle — lies behind the general strategy that is embedded in the international nuclear-nonproliferation treaty. Everybody involved understands that if any government got a chance to acquire nuclear power before the other treaty members had a chance to notice and impose sanctions, it would jump at the opportunity. So the nonproliferation regime is not and could never be based on some principle of international fairness. But it does not follow that the United States and its allies should simply accept the development of nuclear technology by just anyone. It should be relevant to our deliberations that a particular candidate is our enemy. When it comes to Islamic states, there is serious reason to worry that, both now and in the immediately foreseeable future, popular anti-American sentiment is especially likely to play an important role in the shaping of foreign policy. Over the next quarter-century, it is conceivable and certainly desirable that Islamism and anti-Americanism may be unlinked. But we must be honest and acknowledge that in the short term at least, the U.S. democratization strategy has done almost nothing to reduce Islamist anti-Americanism, whether Shiite or Sunni — this despite the fact that the same strategy has benefited Islamists across the region by allowing them to run for office and enter government. Much of the reason for this close linkage between Islamism and anti-Americanism comes from Iran. As an enemy of the United States, which has worked consistently against American interests, Iran is in a category by itself, most nearly matched by North Korea, the other still-standing member of President Bush’s axis of evil. In this, Iran’s motives have been primarily Islamic-ideological, not pragmatic. For many years under the shah, Iran was a natural American ally — precisely because it was Shiite and non-Arab, and uncomfortably close to the Soviet Union and its fantasy of a warm-water port. Even after the 1979 revolution and the hostage crisis, it is possible that the United States would have eventually reopened relations with an avowedly Islamic Iran had the government softened its anti-Americanism. The United States has never made secularism a condition of friendship. It has been fully prepared to support Islamic states like Saudi Arabia, and even used religion to cement the anti-Communist alliance during the cold war. The Iraqi Shiite Islamists have been willing to work alongside the Americans, and the United States has in return treated them as its allies, democratically chosen by the Iraqi electorate. Islamist anti-Americanism is the direct legacy of Ayatollah Khomeini’s success in marrying Islamic faith to anti-imperialism — making “Death to America” into a religious chant, not just a political slogan. Of course the United States was hardly blameless. It did everything it could to open itself to the imperialist charge, including, in Iran, backing the famous 1953 countercoup that removed from power Iran’s first democratically legitimate prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. Contemporary Islamists can also point to America’s continuing hypocritical support of regional authoritarian regimes. Iranian-rooted Islamist anti-Americanism has worked far better than its designers might have imagined, spreading to Sunni Islamists who have little love to lose for Iran. The marriage of Islamism and anti-Americanism will probably be considered by history as the most significant consequence of the Iranian revolution. Anti-Americanism has become a staple of Islamist sermons and Web postings, an effective tool for drawing to the movement angry young people who might not naturally be drawn to religion. Bin Ladenism, in this sense, owes much to the Iranian revolution even though Al Qaeda was never Iran’s direct ally. United States support for Israel has always been an important part of the argument for Islamist anti-Americanism, but today it is by no means a necessary component. If U.S. support of Israel were to weaken, the American presence in Iraq and elsewhere in the gulf would easily substitute as a basis for hatred. The United States therefore has strong reason to block its enemy Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons — not simply because Iran will seek to become a greater regional power, as any nation might do, but because the Islamic Republic of Iran as currently constituted is definitionally anti-American. There need not be a direct threat of Iranian first use against either the United States or Israel for this reason to weigh heavily. A nuclear Iran will be a stronger and more effective enemy in pursuing anti-American policies under the banner of Islam. That will not change until the Iranian state abandons either its Islamic identity or its association between Islam and anti-Americanism. Iran’s eagerness to acquire nuclear capacity need not be a result of a particularly Islamic motivation, but if and when Iran does have the bomb, its enhanced power and prestige will certainly be lent to policies that it conceives as promoting the Islamic interest. Whether force, negotiation or some combination is the right path to take to keep Iran from going nuclear is of course a hugely important question. It turns on many uncertain facts, like the true progress of Iran’s nuclear program and how much it can be affected by air attack; Iran’s capacity and will to retaliate against an attack; whether there is any chance Iran would respond to negotiations; and the ability of the United States to withstand any retaliation while 150,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq. As we have recently learned in Iraq, it is not enough to think you have a good reason to go to war — you must also have a realistic understanding of the practical and moral costs of things going horribly wrong. Any choice, though, must be made against the backdrop of the reality that the Islamic government of Iran is not only unlikely to collapse soon — it is also very unlikely to become less anti-American in the near future. The same, unfortunately, is true of the world’s Islamist movements, for whom anti-Americanism remains a rallying cry and a principle of belief. Perhaps the promotion of democracy in the region, pursued consistently by the United States over the long term, might someday allow the rise of leaders whose Islamism is tempered by the need to satisfy their constituents’ domestic needs — and who eschew anti-Americanism as wasteful and misguided. Iraq was the test case of whether this change could occur in the short term. But we failed to make the experiment work and gave Iraq’s Islamist politicians, Shiite and Sunni alike, ample grounds to continue the anti-American rhetoric that comes so easily to them. In the wake of our tragic mismanagement of Iraq, we are certainly a generation or more from any such unlinking of Islamism and anti-Americanism, if it is to occur at all. And Islamism itself shows no signs of being on the wane as a social or political force. That means that the best we can hope for in nuclear Islamic states in the near term is a rational dictator like Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, who sees his bread buttered on the side of an alliance with the West. Such rulers can be very strong and can bring stability, but we also know that their rule (or reign) promotes Islamist opposition, with its often violent overtones. When such rulers die or otherwise fall from power, the Islamists will be poised to use the international power conferred by nuclear weapons to pursue their own ends — ends for now overwhelmingly likely to be anti-American. None of this is inherent in the structure of Islam itself. Islam contains a rich and multivocal set of traditions and ideas, susceptible to being used for good or ill, for restraint or destruction. This interpretive flexibility — equally characteristic of the other great world religions — does not rob Islam of its distinctiveness. An Islamic bomb would not be just the same as the nationalist bomb of a majority-Muslim state, nor would it be the same as a Christian bomb or a Jewish one. But its role in history will depend, ultimately, on the meaning Muslims give it, and the uses to which they put their faith and their capabilities. In confronting the possibility of the Islamic bomb, we — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — need to remember that Islam exists both as an ideal system of morals and values and as a force that motivates actual people living today, with all the frailties and imperfections that make us human. Noah Feldman, a contributing writer, is a law professor at New York University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. More Articles in Magazine » Lawmakers Charged in Plot to Buy Spot on Mayoral Ballot: By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and MARC SANTORA A top New York State lawmaker was arrested early Tuesday morning for what federal prosecutors said was his central role in a brazen series of bribery and corruption schemes, including an attempt to buy a spot on the ballot in this year’s race for New York City mayor. In outlining the charges against the lawmaker, State Senator Malcolm A. Smith, as well as five other politicians and Republican Party leaders, United States Attorney Preet Bharara said the case was but the latest evidence that corruption in New York was “pervasive.” “Every New Yorker should be disheartened and dismayed by the sad state of affairs in this great state,” Mr. Bharara said. Mr. Smith, a Queens Democrat who rose to become the first black president of the State Senate, was accused of conspiring with City Councilman Daniel J. Halloran III, a Queens Republican, to get his name on the ballot for mayor as a Republican, which would require approval of a majority of the party’s leadership in the city. The others arrested were Joseph J. Savino, the Bronx G.O.P. chairman; Vincent Tabone, vice chairman of the Queens Republican Party; and Noramie F. Jasmin, the mayor of the Rockland County village of Spring Valley, and her deputy, Joseph A. Desmaret, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint details a scheme hatched in a series of clandestine meetings in hotels, with cash passing hands in parked cars and hushed conversations in a restaurant on Valentine’s Day and even in Mr. Smith’s office in Albany. The meetings, recorded by an undercover agent or a cooperating witness, were primarily among Mr. Smith, the undercover agent and the witness, and Mr. Halloran and the agent and the witness. The scheme involving the race was one of three bribery schemes charged in the case. Mr. Bharara, at a news conference, pointed to Mr. Halloran’s own words in a recorded conversation with the confidential witness as evidence of how “money greases the wheel.” “That’s politics, that’s politics,” Mr. Halloran is quoted in the complaint as saying. “Not about whether or will, it’s about how much, and that’s our politicians in New York, they’re all like that. And they get like that because of the drive that the money does for everything else.” The charges immediately reverberated at City Hall and in Albany, threatening to upset the Republican primary for mayor of New York and the leadership coalition that governs the State Senate. “It is very, very troubling,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said of the charges. “We have zero tolerance for any violation of the public integrity and the public trust, so they’re very serious.” At the Capitol, Mr. Smith is a key member of an independent faction of Democrats who joined forces with Republicans to seize control of the Senate this year. Although that coalition has enough members to retain control without him, the charges against him are sure to taint the coalition as well as the rest of the Senate Democrats, who have been struggling to distance themselves from years of corruption. Jeffrey D. Klein, a Democrat and a one of the two leaders of the State Senate, said Mr. Smith would be stripped of his committee assignments and his conference leadership position. “These are very serious allegations that, if true, constitute a clear betrayal of the public trust,” Mr. Klein said in a statement. And in New York City, the case suggests an unseemly connection between money and the Republican Party’s nominating process, and raises questions for a leading Republican candidate, John Catsimatidis. Mr. Tabone is an influential campaign adviser to Mr. Catsimatidis and in-house counsel to the candidate’s privately held company, which owns the Gristedes supermarket chain. The charges are also likely to be a distraction for Joseph J. Lhota, another leading Republican candidate, who just days ago celebrated the endorsement of Mr. Halloran. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Catsimatidis said he had suspended Mr. Tabone pending the outcome of the charges, and he dismissed the idea that the indictment would affect his mayoral bid. “Why would it affect the election? Why would it affect me?” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “It affects my campaign zero. We are going 100 percent ahead.” Mr. Catsimatidis played down Mr. Tabone’s role in his business, describing him as one of several lawyers under his employ, but acknowledged that Mr. Tabone had been closely involved in his campaign for several months. Asked if Mr. Tabone’s discussions with a rival Republican candidate could be viewed as a form of betrayal, Mr. Catsimatidis replied, “I think it can be considered a little bit of treason.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Lhota declined to comment. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who said he was familiar with only the broad outlines of the charges, said that they illustrated the need to hold nonpartisan elections in the city, a cause that he has championed over the years but that has failed to gain widespread support. Mr. Smith, 56, was taken from his home in St. Albans in handcuffs by F.B.I. agents before sunrise and Mr. Halloran, a lawyer, was arrested about the same time, law enforcement authorities said. Mr. Smith, a contractor and real estate developer, has said he was considering running for mayor as a Republican, and the charges contend that he made payments to Mr. Halloran in exchange for the councilman’s assistance in setting up meetings with Republican leaders as part of an effort to get on the ballot, the complaint said The criminal complaint was filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and unsealed Tuesday morning. Mr. Smith, Mr. Halloran and the others were to appear later Tuesday before a United States magistrate judge in United States District Court in White Plains. Mr. Smith, according to the complaint, agreed with the cooperating witness and the undercover F.B.I. agent, who was masquerading as a wealthy real estate developer, to pay off leaders of Republican county committees in New York’s five boroughs. The bribes were to be paid to obtain specific certificates authorizing him to run for mayor as a Republican even though he was a registered Democrat. The undercover agent and the cooperating witness served as intermediaries between the senator and Mr. Halloran, the complaint said. Mr. Smith’s lawyer, Gerald L. Shargel, said his client denied wrongdoing. “Malcolm Smith is a dedicated and highly respected public servant and he steadfastly denies these charges,” Mr. Shargel said, adding that he would have more to say after he had an opportunity to study the charges. Lawyers for Mr. Savino and Mr. Tabone, Kevin B. Faga and Vito A. Palimieri, could not immediately be reached for comment. The lawyers representing the other defendants could not immediately be identified. Most of the defendants, according to the complaint, were looking for something: Mr. Smith was seeking authorization to get his name on the ballot. Mr. Halloran, in addition to cash payments, also mentioned the possibility of being named deputy police commissioner if Mr. Smith found his way into Gracie Mansion. Ms. Jasmin wanted an ownership interest in a company she believed was involved in a real estate deal, the complaint says, and Mr. Smith promised to steer $500,000 in state transportation funds to that project. And at least one of the defendants was also looking for a way to avoid jail. George Venizelos, the assistant director of the F.B.I.'s New York office, said in a statement that Mr. Tabone, clearly aware that the bribery scheme was illegal, patted down the undercover F.B.I. agent at one point to see if he was wearing a recording device. “He was,” Mr. Venizelos said, “but Tabone was less skilled at conducting a pat-down than he was at conducting a shakedown.” At the same time, Mr. Tabone, according to the complaint, boasted to the undercover agent when he was asked if he could deliver the certification to appear on the Republican ballot. “Nobody else runs the party,” he said. “I run the party.” But Mr. Smith became impatient, asking the agent and the cooperating witness during a meeting in his office whether the Republican committee leaders were delaying getting his certificates because they wanted more money. Mr. Smith, according to the complaint, instructed the two men not to pay the committee leaders any more money until they had “close[d] … the deal.” He also said that before the leaders received “even a nickel more, [he’d] have to stand on the Empire State Building and drop every person [he] endorsed and hold Malcolm up and say he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Matter of fact, he’s better than sliced bread.” According to the complaint, Mr. Halloran set up a meeting at which the undercover agent and the witness met Mr. Savino and Mr. Tabone, and negotiated the amounts of the bribes for the documents. In exchange, Mr. Halloran sought and received more than $20,000 in cash for himself, prosecutors said. Though at one point, according to the complaint, Mr. Halloran said he could probably get the leaders of all five Republican county parties to sign certificates on behalf of Mr. Smith, no other county leader has been accused of wrongdoing. Mr. Tabone and Mr. Savino were paid bribes of more than $40,000 and were promised $40,000 more, and they in turn agreed to use their official capacities with Republican county committees to obtain the documents Mr. Smith would need to run for mayor as a Republican Mr. Smith, in exchange for help from Mr. Savino and Mr. Tabone, agreed to use his Senate office to help win state funds for a road project in Spring Valley that would benefit a real estate development that Senator Smith believed was being built by a company belonging to the undercover agent. The development involved building a community center in Spring Valley. On Tuesday, a sign near the site with the words “Coming Soon!” showed a rendering of the center. The complaint said that on Nov. 16, Mr. Smith met the undercover agent and the cooperating witness at a hotel in White Plains and asked the witness to contact a Republican Party county chairman identified in the charges only as “County Chairman #1” to try to “change him” by persuading him to support Mr. Smith rather than another mayoral candidate whom the chairman had publicly supported. Later that day, the complaint said, Mr. Halloran met the undercover agent at a Queens restaurant in order to receive a bribe in exchange for taking what the charges refer to as unspecified “unrelated official action.” During that meeting, the agent asked Mr. Halloran if he knew “County Chairman #1” and Mr. Halloran said that he did, and that he knew Mr. Savino. Mr. Halloran agreed to ask the county chairman and Mr. Savino what they would want in exchange for their support for a mayoral candidate, the complaint said. And on that same day, the undercover agent met Mr. Smith at a hotel in Manhattan and told him that the agent could arrange a meeting with “County Chairman #1” and Mr. Savino during which the agent would try to negotiate their support for the senator, the complaint said. Mr. Smith, the complaint said, told the undercover agent: “You pull this off, you can have the house. I’ll be a tenant.” Several months later, Mr. Smith met the cooperating witness in Rockland County, the complaint said. As they sat in a parked car, the witness told Mr. Smith that getting the certificates from the county leaders would cost “a pretty penny,” the complaint said. “It’s worth any price?” the witness asked. The senator responded, according to the complaint: “Look, talk to me before you close it. But it’s worth it. Because you know how big a deal it is.” Two weeks later, Mr. Halloran met the undercover agent and the witness at a Manhattan hotel and told them that Mr. Savino wanted $25,000 “in an envelope” in exchange for signing the certificate, the complaint said. Mr. Tabone, the person said, wanted $50,000 — half of the money before he signed and the balance afterward. Mr. Smith has been a subject of several criminal inquiries in recent years and his constituents have steadfastly stood by him in the past. After his arrest, some of those who live in his district were hesitant to cast judgment. Francois Pierrelouis, 80, said he voted for Mr. Smith in the last election and he called the allegations “just an accusation.” While he said it was too soon to call Mr. Smith guilty, he said, in general, he was tired of politicians “that are not connected to the needs of the people.” Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Michael Barbaro, Thomas Kaplan, Randy Leonard and Julie Turkewitz. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: April 2, 2013 An earlier version of this article misstated Daniel J. Halloran III’s history with the New York Police Department. He was once a police cadet, according to the Police Department, but never a police officer. No-fault divorce bill given final approval by Assembly By Tom Precious News Albany Bureau Updated: July 02, 2010, 12:08 am / Published: July 02, 2010, 8:22 am ALBANY — New York would join the other 49 states permitting no-fault divorce, making it faster and less expensive for uncontested breakups, under legislation given final approval Thursday night. Perhaps more significant, the deal updates and makes more uniform the way in which maintenance — or alimony — is awarded, ending a current system that some lawmakers say forces some people to stay in abusive or empty relationships because of economic conditions. Besides the no-fault and alimony components, the three-part legislative package also calls for the "monied" spouse in a couple with "greatly unequal financial resources" to pay lawyer fees of the other spouse in a divorce proceeding — a move intended to level the legal playing field between a divorcing husband and wife. "Taken together as a package, and it's very important that they be enacted together, [the legislation] will make a real difference in helping families in New York State," said Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, chairwoman of the Assembly's Judiciary Committee. The measure was among dozens of bills getting final passage in the last 48 hours as the Legislature ended — sort of — its regular 2010 session. The bills included new rights for domestic workers, expanded crossbow hunting rights and use of shock incarceration prison camps for more nonviolent offenders. The Senate, at least, will return in the coming weeks to take up final passage of the state budget, and other unresolved issues, that also may force the Assembly back to the Capitol. Other bills getting final, two-house approval include raising from 20 to 50 hours the supervised practice driving requirements for teenagers taking driver education courses; new requirements for governors to turn over public documents to the state archives; and an authorization for Erie County to transfer Beeman Creek Park to the Town of Clarence. Erie County's additional 1 percent sales tax levy was extended, something that has been done annually since the mid-1980s. The domestic workers measure will provide new protections for more than 200,000 nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers. It includes new overtime pay requirements, minimum wage protections, and letting domestic workers choose a day of rest each week. The agreement on changes to the state's divorce laws has been years in the making. Advocates say the no-fault provision will make for quicker and less expensive divorces for couples who want to end their marriages by mutual consent. It ends New York's being the only state that requires "fault" or blame — such as adultery, abandonment or cruel and unusual punishment — to end a marriage unless the partners have lived apart for at least a year and have a separation decree. The no-fault provision, which overwhelmingly passed the Assembly on Thursday night in a 113-19 vote after the Senate previously approved it, permits a divorce after a marriage has "irretrievably broken down" for six months or more and after financial and custody issues are resolved. Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing, D-Manhattan, who sponsored the bill, said during floor debate Thursday night that the law now requires "one person to be judged as the bad person" in a divorce, which he said creates animosity and extended legal battles and is damaging for children in the family. Supporters say that it also forces some couples to commit perjury in order to find fault. "We are really creating history tonight," Bing told his colleagues. He said couples splitting up amicably "will be able to leave that relationship with dignity and respect and a better relationship with their children." The issue has split some women's groups. The Women's Bar Association of New York supported it, but the state chapter of the National Organization for Women was opposed, saying judges could ignore cruel and inhuman treatment of domestic-violence victims. Religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, opposed the measure, saying that it would make it too simple to get divorced in New York, the last state in the nation without some sort of no-fault law. "We believe the state is sending the wrong message about marriage and its place in society," said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York Catholic Conference, which represents bishops in the state. He said the measure turns marriage "into a disposable commodity as soon as one party or the other wants out." But supporters say the state's current law often favors one spouse over the other, is unwieldy and expensive, and offers no uniform approach from judge to judge. The legislative agreement does not take away legal routes to assign blame in a divorce, but adds no-fault as an option, which will be useful for couples splitting amicably. A spokesman for Gov. David A. Paterson declined to preview whether the governor would sign the bills, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said, "I have reason to believe he will." Though the no-fault issue has gotten the headlines, the alimony measure is a dramatic change, supporters say, because it will establish a clear formula — based on specific income levels and length of the marriage — for judges to use in divorce proceedings. The bill also keeps judicial discretion in awards if the formula results in an "unjust or improper" alimony. Supporters say most divorces do not get bogged down over assigning blame, but over financial matters. Weinstein called the alimony changes "long overdue reform." "Sort of lost in this debate about no-fault has been the economic consequences of divorces, most particularly on women, and the fact that there are women in abusive relationships who have grounds for divorce, and don't need no-fault, but can't get out of an abusive relationship because of the economic consequences of doing that," she said. The assemblywoman said the alimony formula includes a specific factor that will have to be considered if a person has been denied "economic opportunities" in terms of employment because of domestic violence. "The economic issues that we address in this reform," she said, "will have a much more lasting and far-reaching impact on the lives of New Yorkers than this additional ground of no-fault." tprecious@buffnews.com Benefit for Uninsured May Still Pose Hurdle David Plunkert By RONI CARYN RABIN Published: April 19, 2010 William Mann of Pittsburgh earns just enough to get by. He is 46, doesn’t own a car, hasn’t taken a vacation in three years and hasn’t had health insurance for most of his adult life. Readers’ Questions on the New Health Care Law Prescription Blog answers your questions on the effects of the new health care legislation. He is just the kind of person who should benefit from the health care overhaul, and he is, in fact, eligible for heavily subsidized insurance that will cost him an estimated $1,845 a year, while the government contributes about $2,756. But Mr. Mann says he still can’t afford it. He lives too close to the edge, and won’t be buying insurance, even though he will face a fine under a provision called the individual mandate, which penalizes most Americans who don’t buy coverage starting in 2014. The requirement is one of the most controversial aspects of the overhaul. “I just can’t put that kind of money out for a ‘maybe’ — maybe I’ll get sick and use it,” said Mr. Mann, who makes just over $25,000 a year as an administrative assistant at a small wine distribution company. “That’s a lot of money.” “The people who make all these decisions don’t live like the way I do,” Mr. Mann added, echoing other uninsured people in his income group. “They don’t live like the rest of us.” Legal questions about the individual mandate aside, the choices made by people like Mr. Mann are crucial. One reason the individual mandate was created was to attract as many healthy people as possible to the individual market to offset the demands of the many sick people who will be buying in, and who have medical needs that drive up costs. Yet no one really knows which way the Mr. Manns of the nation, people struggling in a tough economy, will go. “Given the choice, a lot of people are going to purchase coverage rather than pay the penalty — they simply want the security of having health insurance,” said Jennifer Tolbert, principal policy analyst at the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, an initiative of the Kaiser Family Foundation (not associated with Kaiser Permanente, the health insurance company). She said that had been the experience in Massachusetts under a similar initiative. But she added, “The key is to make coverage affordable.” According to the Congressional Budget Office, some 32 million more Americans will have insurance by 2019 under the new law, about half of whom will be buying health insurance on the individual market for the first time (the other half will be covered for the first time under Medicaid, which is being expanded to include more of the poor). But Edmund F. Haislmaier, senior research fellow of health policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, said he was skeptical that so many uninsured people would actually start buying insurance. “We’re premising all this on the idea that we’ll cross-subsidize older, sicker people with a lot of young healthy people, whom we assume will buy the coverage,” he said. “But what if they don’t?” Many of the uninsured in America are in the same economic boat as Mr. Mann. Some 60 percent of the uninsured earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($21,660 for a single person and $44,100 for a family of four), according to Sara R. Collins, of the Commonwealth Fund, a health care research group. As earnings increase, people are more likely to be insured, experts say. A recent study by the fund said that about one-third of people who tried to buy health insurance on their own were turned down or charged more because of a medical condition. But three-quarters walked away for other reasons, and most cited price; 60 percent said it was either “difficult” or “impossible” to find an affordable plan, said Ms. Collins, vice president for the fund’s Affordable Health Insurance Program. Jacqui Brownstein, 63, a freelance copy editor and proofreader, said she moved to Lancaster, Pa., from New Jersey in 2004 primarily because health insurance was more affordable there. But she can’t afford it anymore; the last time she bought insurance, she paid $4,300 a year, but the rate quoted last year was $5,700. “There was no way I could afford it, so I dropped it,” said Ms. Brownstein, a smoker who has Type 2 diabetes and a family history of ovarian cancer. Premium subsidies, which will be available to people who buy insurance through the exchanges being established, are supposed to address that problem, experts say. A 40-year-old in a medium-cost geographic area who earns $21,660 (200 percent of the federal poverty level) and whose annual premium is $3,500, for example, would receive a subsidy of $2,135 that goes directly to the insurer, while he or she pays $1,365. A family of four with an income of $44,100 would pay $2,778 while the government subsidizes the plan to the tune of $6,656. The proportion of income people at this level have to pay for insurance is capped at no more than 6.3 percent of their earnings. As income increases, the subsidy drops; families earning 300 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level are expected to pay up to 9.5 percent of their income, an amount that ranges from $6,284 to $8,379 per year; the federal subsidy is from $3,150 to $1,056. At the same time, however, a provision states that anyone who cannot find a premium that costs less than 8 percent of their income is exempted from the penalty. It’s hard to predict whether the carrots and sticks of subsidies and penalties will suffice to bring people into the system, when there are so many are unemployed or underemployed people, many earning less in today’s economy than before and worried about job security and prospects. From a pure dollars-and-cents point of view, it is cheaper for people just to pay the penalty. Even when fully implemented in 2016, the penalty is limited to no more than 2.5 percent of taxable income, and it starts out even lower, with a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of income in 2014. “It’s hard to analyze because people are making health decisions based on their wallets,” said Sara Horowitz, who founded the Freelancers Union, a nonprofit organization that offers health insurance to freelancers. April 23, 2010 Health Care Cost Increase Is Projected for New Law By ROBERT PEAR WASHINGTON — A government analysis of the new health care law says it will not slow the overall growth of health spending because the expansion of insurance and services to 34 million people will offset cost reductions in Medicare and other programs. The study, by the chief Medicare actuary, Richard S. Foster, provides a detailed, rigorous analysis of the law. In signing the measure last month, President Obama said it would “bring down health care costs for families and businesses and governments.” But Mr. Foster said, “Overall national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion,” or nine-tenths of 1 percent, compared with the amounts that would otherwise be spent from 2010 to 2019. In his report, sent to Congress Thursday night, Mr. Foster said that some provisions of the law, including cutbacks in Medicare payments to health care providers and a tax on high-cost employer-sponsored coverage, would slow the growth of health costs. But he said the savings “would be more than offset through 2019 by the higher health expenditures resulting from the coverage expansions.” The report says that 34 million uninsured people will gain coverage under the law, but that 23 million people, including 5 million illegal immigrants, will still be uninsured in 2019. Republicans said the report vindicated their concerns about the law, which was approved without a single Republican vote. The White House pointed to bright spots in the report and insisted that the law would help bring down costs. In 2004, when Mr. Foster raised questions about cost estimates by the Bush administration, Democrats lionized him as a paragon of integrity. Mr. Foster says the law will save Medicare more than $500 billion in the coming decade and will postpone exhaustion of the Medicare trust fund by 12 years, so it would run out of money in 2029, rather than 2017. In addition, he said, the reduction in the growth of Medicare will lead to lower premiums and co-payments for Medicare beneficiaries. But, Mr. Foster said, these savings assume that the law will be carried out as written, and that may be an unrealistic assumption. The cuts, he said, “could become unsustainable” because they may drive some hospitals and nursing homes into the red, “possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries.” Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said that fear was unfounded. Mr. Foster’s report, which analyzes the effect of the law on national health spending of all types, has a different focus from studies by the Congressional Budget Office, which concentrated on federal spending and revenues and concluded that the law would reduce budget deficits by a total of $143 billion over 10 years. In his report, Mr. Foster made these points: ¶The government will spend $828 billion to expand insurance coverage over the next 10 years. Expansion of Medicaid accounts for about half of the cost. The number of Medicaid recipients will increase by 20 million, to a total of 84 million in 2019. ¶People who go without insurance and employers who do not provide coverage meeting federal standards will pay $120 billion in penalties from 2014 to 2019. Individuals will pay $33 billion of that amount, while employers pay $87 billion. ¶The law will reduce consumers’ out-of-pocket spending on health care by $237 billion over 10 years, to a total of $3.3 trillion. Cuts in federal payments to private Medicare Advantage plans will “result in less generous benefit packages,” the report said. By 2017, it said, “enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans will be lower by about 50 percent, from its projected level of 14.8 million under the prior law to 7.4 million under the new law.” NY Sun The call by British parliamentarians for an end to the use of the phrase “special relationship” to describe the long affair of Britain and America will, we predict, come to be seen by historians as one of the tragedies of the Obama years. The parliamentarians, members of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, issued their call in a report released on today. The news service MarketWatch quotes one member of the committee, Mike Gapes, as characterizing the report point as being that “a more hard-headed political approach towards our relationship with the U.S. with a realistic sense of our own limits and our national interests.” That was a nice way of putting it. The matter was put more bluntly by others quoted by MarketWatch, who tie the deterioration in relations between America and Britain more directly to President Obama. “He is an American who grew up in Hawaii, whose foreign experience was of Indonesia and who had a Kenyan father. The sentimental reflexes, if you like, are not there,” MarketWatch quotes a former British envoy in Washington, David Manning, as saying in testimony it says was used in writing the report. What has made the American-British relationship special, however, was not blood ties or “sentimental reflexes” — who has a lot of sentiment for George III? — but rather a shared concept of democracy and of individual liberty. These are ideas going back to people like John Locke and Adam Smith. And there are those who see this, and not matters having to do with personal background, as that which is in danger of being lost. A senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Nick Witney, is quoted by MarketWatch as putting the matter more bluntly, still. “If one thinks of what [Republican candidate] John McCain had to say about the league of democracies and so forth, I think that perhaps there would have been a stronger interest in a McCain Administration in reaching out particularly to like-minded democracies around the globe. That is something that the Obama Administration do not seem too concerned about.” Harsh words. There has been much comment about the fraying, during the first year of Mr. Obama’s presidency, of relations between America and all sorts of countries, from Germany and France to Poland and China. That has been all the more dramatic when contrasted with the ridicule the Democrats heaped on President Bush for supposedly damaging our relations with the rest of the world and its multi-lateral institutions. But those were instances in which Mr. Bush held the high ground. What strikes us about the sentiments Mr. Witney is describing is the sense that we are in a period in which it is America that is falling away from the countries that cling to principles that made Britain and America so special. REPEAL Why and how Obamacare must be undone BY Yuval Levin April 5 - April 12, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 28 In the days since the enactment of their health care plan, Democrats in Washington have been desperately seeking to lodge the new program in the pantheon of American public-policy achievements. House Democratic whip James Clyburn compared the bill to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Vice President Biden argued it vindicates a century of health reform efforts by Democrats and Republicans alike. House speaker Nancy Pelosi said “health insurance reform will stand alongside Social Security and Medicare in the annals of American history.” Even putting aside the fact that Social Security and Medicare are going broke and taking the rest of the government with them, these frantic forced analogies are preposterous. The new law is a ghastly mess, which began as a badly misguided technocratic pipe dream and was then degraded into ruinous incoherence by the madcap process of its enactment. The appeals to history are understandable, however, because the Democrats know that the law is also exceedingly vulnerable to a wholesale repeal effort: Its major provisions do not take effect for four years, yet in the interim it is likely to begin wreaking havoc with the health care sector—raising insurance premiums, health care costs, and public anxieties. If those major provisions do take effect, moreover, the true costs of the program will soon become clear, and its unsustainable structure will grow painfully obvious. So, to protect it from an angry public and from Republicans armed with alternatives, the new law must be made to seem thoroughly established and utterly irrevocable—a fact on the ground that must be lived with; tweaked, if necessary, at the edges, but at its core politically untouchable. But it is no such thing. Obamacare starts life strikingly unpopular and looks likely to grow more so as we get to know it in the coming months and years. The entire House of Representatives, two-thirds of the Senate, and the president will be up for election before the law’s most significant provisions become fully active. The American public is concerned about spending, deficits, debt, taxes, and overactive government to an extent seldom seen in American history. The excesses of the plan seem likely to make the case for alternative gradual and incremental reforms only stronger. And the repeal of Obamacare is essential to any meaningful effort to bring down health care costs, provide greater stability and security of coverage to more Americans, and address our entitlement crisis. Both the program’s original design and its contorted final form make repairs at the edges unworkable. The only solution is to repeal it and pursue genuine health care reform in its stead. From Bad to Worse To see why nothing short of repeal could suffice, we should begin at the core of our health care dilemma. Conservative and liberal experts generally agree on the nature of the problem with American health care financing: There is a shortage of incentives for efficiency in our methods of paying for coverage and care, and therefore costs are rising much too quickly, leaving too many people unable to afford insurance. We have neither a fully public nor quite a private system of insurance, and three key federal policies—the fee-for-service structure of Medicare, the disjointed financing of Medicaid, and the open-ended tax exclusion for employer-provided insurance—drive spending and costs ever upward. The disagreement about just how to fix that problem has tended to break down along a familiar dispute between left and right: whether economic efficiency is best achieved by the rational control of expert management or by the lawful chaos of open competition. Liberals argue that the efficiency we lack would be achieved by putting as much as possible of the health care sector into one big “system” in which the various irregularities could be evened and managed out of existence by the orderly arrangement of rules and incentives. The problem now, they say, is that health care is too chaotic and answers only to the needs of the insurance companies. If it were made more orderly, and answered to the needs of the public as a whole, costs could be controlled more effectively. Conservatives argue that the efficiency we lack would be achieved by allowing price signals to shape the behavior of both providers and consumers, creating more savings than we could hope to produce on purpose, and allowing competition and informed consumer choices to exercise a downward pressure on prices. The problem now, they say, is that third-party insurance (in which employers buy coverage or the government provides it, and consumers almost never pay doctors directly) makes health care too opaque, hiding the cost of everything from everyone and so making real pricing and therefore real economic efficiency impossible. If it were made more transparent and answered to the wishes of consumers, prices could be controlled more effectively. That means that liberals and conservatives want to pursue health care reform in roughly opposite directions. Conservatives propose ways of introducing genuine market forces into the insurance system—to remove obstacles to choice and competition, pool risk more effectively, and reduce the inefficiency in government health care entitlements while helping those for whom entry to the market is too expensive (like Americans with preexisting conditions) gain access to the same high quality care. Such targeted efforts would build on what is best about the system we have in order to address what needs fixing. Liberals, meanwhile, propose ways of moving Americans to a more fully public system, by arranging conditions in the health care sector (through a mix of mandates, regulations, taxes, and subsidies) to nudge people toward public coverage, which could be more effectively managed. This is the approach the Democrats originally proposed last year. The idea was to end risk-based insurance by making it essentially illegal for insurers to charge people different prices based on their health, age, or other factors; to force everyone to participate in the system so that the healthy do not wait until they’re sick to buy insurance; to align various insurance reforms in a way that would raise premium costs in the private market; and then to introduce a government-run insurer that, whether through Medicare’s negotiating leverage or through various exemptions from market pressures, could undersell private insurers and so offer an attractive “public option” to people being pushed out of employer plans into an increasingly expensive individual market. Conservatives opposed this scheme because they believed a public insurer could not introduce efficiencies that would lower prices without brutal rationing of services. Liberals supported it because they thought a public insurer would be fairer and more effective. But in order to gain 60 votes in the Senate last winter, the Democrats were forced to give up on that public insurer, while leaving the other components of their scheme in place. The result is not even a liberal approach to escalating costs but a ticking time bomb: a scheme that will build up pressure in our private insurance system while offering no escape. Rather than reform a system that everyone agrees is unsustainable, it will subsidize that system and compel participation in it—requiring all Americans to pay ever-growing premiums to insurance companies while doing essentially nothing about the underlying causes of those rising costs. Liberal health care mavens understand this. When the public option was removed from the health care bill in the Senate, Howard Dean argued in the Washington Post that the bill had become merely a subsidy for insurance companies, and failed completely to control costs. Liberal health care blogger Jon Walker said, “The Senate bill will fail to stop the rapidly approaching meltdown of our health care system, and anyone is a fool for thinking otherwise.” Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos called the bill “unconscionable” and said it lacked “any mechanisms to control costs.” Indeed, many conservatives, for all their justified opposition to a government takeover of health care, have not yet quite seen the full extent to which this bill will exacerbate the cost problem. It is designed to push people into a system that will not exist—a health care bridge to nowhere—and so will cause premiums to rise and encourage significant dislocation and then will initiate a program of subsidies whose only real answer to the mounting costs of coverage will be to pay them with public dollars and so increase them further. It aims to spend a trillion dollars on subsidies to large insurance companies and the expansion of Medicaid, to micromanage the insurance industry in ways likely only to raise premiums further, to cut Medicare benefits without using the money to shore up the program or reduce the deficit, and to raise taxes on employment, investment, and medical research. The case for averting all of that could hardly be stronger. And the nature of the new law means that it must be undone—not trimmed at the edges. Once implemented fully, it would fairly quickly force a crisis that would require another significant reform. Liberals would seek to use that crisis, or the prospect of it, to move the system toward the approach they wanted in the first place: arguing that the only solution to the rising costs they have created is a public insurer they imagine could outlaw the economics of health care. A look at the fiscal collapse of the Medicare system should rid us of the notion that any such approach would work, but it remains the left’s preferred solution, and it is their only plausible next move—indeed, some Democrats led by Iowa senator Tom Harkin have already begun talking about adding a public insurance option to the plan next year. Because Obamacare embodies a rejection of incrementalism, it cannot be improved in small steps. Fixing our health care system in the wake of the program’s enactment will require a big step—repeal of the law before most of it takes hold—followed by incremental reforms addressing the public’s real concerns. The Case for Repeal That big step will not be easy to take. The Democratic party has invested its identity and its future in the fate of this new program, and Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress. That is why the conservative health care agenda must now also be an electoral agenda—an effort to refine, inform, and build on public opposition to the new program and to the broader trend toward larger and more intrusive, expensive, and fiscally reckless government in the age of Obama. Obamacare is the most prominent emblem of that larger trend, and its repeal must be at the center of the conservative case to voters in the coming two election cycles. The design of the new law offers some assistance. In an effort to manipulate the program’s Congressional Budget Office score so as to meet President Obama’s goal of spending less than $1 trillion in its first decade, the Democrats’ plan will roll out along a very peculiar trajectory. No significant entitlement benefits will be made available for four years, but some significant taxes and Medicare cuts—as well as regulatory reforms that may begin to push premium prices up, especially in the individual market—will begin before then. And the jockeying and jostling in the insurance sector in preparation for the more dramatic changes that begin in 2014 will begin to be felt very soon. To blunt the effects of all this, the Democrats have worked mightily to give the impression that some attractive benefits, especially regarding the rules governing insurance companies, will begin immediately. This year, they say, insurance companies will be prevented from using the preexisting medical condition of a child to exclude that child’s parents from insurance coverage, and a risk-pool program will be established to help a small number of adults who are excluded too. Additionally, insurance policies cannot be cancelled retroactively when someone becomes sick, some annual and lifetime limits on coverage are prohibited, and “children” may stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26. Obamacare’s champions hope these reforms might build a constituency for the program. But these benefits are far too small to have that effect. The preexisting condition exclusion prohibits only the refusal to cover treatment for a specific disease, not the exclusion of a family from coverage altogether, and applies only in the individual market, and so affects almost no one. More than half the states already have laws allowing parents to keep adult children on their policies—through ages varying from 24 to 31. And the other new benefits, too, may touch a small number of people (again, mostly in the individual market, where premiums will be rising all the while), but will do nothing to affect the overall picture of American health care financing. CBO scored these immediate reforms as having no effect on the number of uninsured or on national health expenditures. The bill will also have the government send a $250 check to seniors who reach the “donut hole” gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage this year—and the checks will go out in September, just in time for the fall elections. But the checks will hardly make up for the significant cuts in Medicare Advantage plans that allow seniors to choose among private insurers for their coverage. Those cuts begin in 2011, but the millions of seniors who use the program will start learning about them this year—again, before the election—as insurance companies start notifying their beneficiaries of higher premiums or cancelled coverage. We are also likely to see some major players in health insurance, including both large employers and large insurers, begin to take steps to prepare for the new system in ways that employees and beneficiaries will find disconcerting. Verizon, for instance, has already informed its employees that insurance premiums will need to rise in the coming years and retiree benefits may be cut. Caterpillar has said new taxes and rules will cost the company $100 million in just the next year, and tractor maker John Deere has said much the same. Such announcements are likely to be common this year, and many insurers active in the individual market are expected to begin curtailing their offerings as that market looks to grow increasingly unprofitable under new rules. These early indications will help opponents of the new law make their case. But the case will certainly need to focus most heavily on what is to come in the years after this congressional election: spending, taxes, rising health care costs, cuts in Medicare that don’t help save the program or reduce the deficit, and a growing government role in the management of the insurance sector. The numbers are gargantuan and grim—even as laid out by the Congressional Budget Office, which has to accept as fact all of the legislation’s dubious premises and promises. If the law remains in place, a new entitlement will begin in 2014 that will cost more than $2.4 trillion in its first 10 years, and will grow faster than either Medicare or private-sector health care spending has in the past decade. Rather than reducing costs, Obamacare will increase national health expenditures by more than $200 billion, according to the Obama administration’s own HHS actuary. Premiums in the individual market will increase by more than 10 percent very quickly, and middle-class families in the new exchanges (where large numbers of Americans who now receive coverage through their employers will find themselves dumped) will be forced to choose from a very limited menu of government-approved plans, the cheapest of which, CBO estimates, will cost more than $12,000. Some Americans—those earning up to four times the federal poverty level—will get subsidies to help with some of that cost, but these subsidies will grow more slowly than the premiums, and those above the threshold will not receive them at all. Many middle-class families will quickly find themselves spending a quarter of their net income on health insurance, according to a calculation by Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute. Through the rules governing the exchanges and other mechanisms (including individual and employer insurance mandates, strict regulation of plan benefit packages, rating rules, and the like), the federal government will begin micromanaging the insurance sector in an effort to extend coverage and control costs. But even CBO’s assessment does not foresee a reduction in costs and therefore an easing of the fundamental source of our health care woes. To help pay for the subsidies, and for a massive expansion of Medicaid, taxes will rise by about half a trillion dollars in the program’s first 10 years—hitting employers and investors especially hard, but quickly being passed down to consumers and workers. And the law also cuts Medicare, especially by reducing physician and hospital payment rates, by another half a trillion dollars—cuts that will drastically undermine the program’s operation as, according to the Medicare actuary, about 20 percent of doctors and other providers who participate in the program “could find it difficult to remain profitable and, absent legislative intervention, might end their participation.” And all of this, CBO says, to increase the portion of Americans who have health insurance from just under 85 percent today to about 95 percent in 10 years. Of course, this scenario—for all the dark prospects it lays out—assumes things will go more or less as planned. CBO is required to assume as much. But in a program so complex and enormous, which seeks to take control of a sixth of our economy but is profoundly incoherent even in its own terms, things will surely not always go as planned. The Medicare cuts so essential to funding the new entitlement, for instance, are unlikely to occur. Congress has shown itself thoroughly unwilling to impose such cuts in the past, and if it fails to follow through on them in this case, Obamacare will add hundreds of billions of additional dollars to the deficit. By the 2012 election, we will have certainly begun to see whether the program’s proposed funding mechanism is a total sham, or is so unpopular as to make Obamacare toxic with seniors. Neither option bodes well for the program’s future. Some of the taxes envisioned in the plan, especially the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost insurance, are also unlikely to materialize quite as proposed, adding further to the long-term costs of the program. And meanwhile, the bizarre incentive structures created by the law (resulting in part from the elimination of the public insurance plan which was to have been its focus) are likely to cause massive distortions in the insurance market that will further increase costs. The individual market will quickly collapse, since new regulations will put it at an immense disadvantage against the new exchanges. We are likely to see significant consolidation in the insurance sector, as smaller insurers go out of business and the larger ones become the equivalent of subsidized and highly regulated public utilities. And the fact that the exchanges will offer subsidies not available to workers with employer-based coverage will mean either that employers will be strongly inclined to stop offering insurance, or that Congress will be pressured to make subsidies available to employer-based coverage. In either case, the program’s costs will quickly balloon. Perhaps worst of all, the law not only shirks the obligation to be fiscally responsible, it will also make it much more difficult for future policymakers to do something about our entitlement and deficit crisis. Obamacare constructs a new entitlement that will grow more and more expensive even more quickly than Medicare itself. Even if the program were actually deficit neutral, which it surely won’t be, that would just mean that it would keep us on the same budget trajectory we are on now—with something approaching trillion-dollar deficits in each of the next 10 years and a national debt of more than $20 trillion by 2020—but leave us with much less money and far fewer options for doing anything about it. In other words, Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster—for our health care system, for our fiscal future, and for any notion of limited government. But it is a disaster that will not truly get underway for four years, and therefore a disaster we can avert. This is the core of the case the program’s opponents must make to voters this year and beyond. If opponents succeed in gaining a firmer foothold in Congress in the fall, they should work to begin dismantling and delaying the program where they can: denying funding to key provisions and pushing back implementation at every opportunity. But a true repeal will almost certainly require yet another election cycle, and another president. The American public is clearly open to the kind of case Obamacare’s opponents will need to make. But keeping voters focused on the problems with the program, and with the reckless growth of government beyond it, will require a concerted, informed, impassioned, and empirical case. This is the kind of case opponents of Obamacare have made over the past year, of course, and it persuaded much of the public—but the Democrats acted before the public could have its say at the polls. The case must therefore be sustained until that happens. The health care debate is far from over. Toward Real Reform Making and sustaining that case will also require a clear sense of what the alternatives to Obama-care might be—and how repeal could be followed by sensible incremental steps toward controlling health care costs and thereby increasing access and improving care. Without a doubt, the Democrats’ program is worse than doing nothing. But the choice should not be that program or nothing. The problems with our health care system are real, and conservatives must show the public how repealing Obamacare will open the way to a variety of options for more sensible reforms—reforms that will lower costs and help those with preexisting conditions or without affordable coverage options, but in ways that do not bankrupt the country, or undermine the quality of care or the freedom of patients and doctors to make choices for themselves. Republicans this past year offered a variety of such approaches, which varied in their ambitions, costs, and forms. A group led by representatives Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes and senators Tom Coburn and Richard Burr proposed a broad measure that included reforms of Medicare, Medicaid, the employer-based coverage tax exclusion, and malpractice liability and would cover nearly all of the uninsured. The House Republican caucus backed a more modest first step to make high-risk pools available to those with preexisting conditions, enable insurance purchases across state lines, pursue tort reform, and encourage states to experiment with innovative insurance regulation. Former Bush administration official Jeffrey Anderson has offered an approach somewhere between the two, which pursues incremental reforms through a “small bill.” Other conservatives have offered numerous other proposals, including ways of allowing small businesses to pool together for coverage, the expansion of Health Savings Accounts and consumer-driven health care (which Obama-care would thoroughly gut), and various reforms of our entitlement system. All share a basic commitment to the proposition that our health care dilemmas should be addressed through a series of discrete, modest, incremental solutions to specific problems that concern the American public, and all agree that the underlying cause of these problems is the cost of health coverage and care, which would be best dealt with by using market forces to improve efficiency and bring down prices. The approach to health care just adopted by President Obama and the Democratic Congress thoroughly fails to deal with efficiency and cost, and stands in the way of any meaningful effort to do so. It is built on a fundamental conceptual error, suffers from a profound incoherence of design, and would make a bad situation far worse. It cannot be improved by tinkering. It must be removed before our health care crisis can be addressed. If we are going to meet the nation’s foremost challenges—ballooning debt, exploding entitlements, out of control health care costs, and the task of keeping America strong and competitive—we must begin by making Obamacare history. We must repeal it, and then pursue real reform. Yuval Levin is the editor of National Affairs and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. February 2, 2010 Obama Calls for End to NASA’s Moon Program By KENNETH CHANG President Obama is calling on NASA to cancel the program that was to return humans to the Moon by 2020, and focus instead on radically new space technologies. Mr. Obama’s 2010 budget proposal for NASA asks for $18 billion over five years for fueling spacecraft in orbit, new types of engines to accelerate spacecraft through space and robotic factories that could churn soil on the Moon — and eventually Mars — into rocket fuel. Plans for a new mission to leave Earth’s orbit will probably not be spelled out for a few years, and the budget proposal makes it clear that any future exploration program will be an international collaboration, not an American one, more like the International Space Station than Apollo. “I think this is a dramatic shift in the way we’ve gone about particularly human spaceflight over the past almost 50 years,” said John M. Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University who was one of about a dozen people who were briefed about the NASA proposal Sunday evening. “It is a somewhat risky proposition,” Dr. Logsdon said, “but we’ve been kind of stuck using the technologies we’ve developed in the ’50s and ’60s.” To pay for the new technology development, the budget calls for a complete stop in NASA’s Constellation program, the rockets and spacecraft that NASA has been working on for the past four years to replace the space shuttles. “We are proposing canceling the program, not delaying it,” Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Sunday. The proposal would officially end aspirations to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020 — President George W. Bush’s “vision for space exploration” developed in the aftermath of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. In place of the Moon mission, Mr. Obama’s vision offers, at least initially, nothing in terms of human exploration of the solar system. What the administration calls a “bold new initiative” does not spell out a next destination or timetable for getting there. In the meantime, instead of using the Constellation’s Ares I rocket and Orion crew capsule to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, $6 billion would instead go to financing space taxi services from commercial companies. Under the proposal, NASA’s budget would rise to $19 billion in the 2011 fiscal year from $18.7 billion. It would also get additional increases in subsequent years, reaching $21 billion in 2015. In total, NASA would receive $100 billion over the next five years. Whether Congress agrees to the restructuring of NASA remains to be seen. As reports of the impending cancellation of Constellation leaked out last week, members of Congress, particularly in Alabama, Florida and Texas, the homes of the NASA centers most involved with Constellation, expressed concern. “If early reports for what the White House wants to do with NASA are correct, then the president’s green-eyeshade-wearing advisers are dead wrong,” Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said in a statement last week. Congress may also balk at the price tag. After spending $9 billion over the past four years on Constellation, canceling the contracts with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Alliant Techsystems and other companies will cost an additional $2.5 billion, Dr. Logsdon said NASA officials had told him. If implemented, the NASA a few years from now would be fundamentally different from NASA today. The space agency would no longer operate its own spacecraft, but essentially buy tickets for its astronauts. Dr. Logsdon said the officials said NASA would evolve into a role more akin to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which preceded NASA. The committee did not manufacturer aircraft, but performed aeronautical research that was adopted by aircraft manufacturers. “The assumption is that there are technological breakthroughs out there ready to be discovered and exploited,” Dr. Logsdon said. “I’m impressed and a little surprised how large the investment in new technology is planned to be. It does represent a shift away from developing systems to developing technologies before developing systems.” If the approach succeeds, it could jumpstart a vibrant space industry, but it is also risky. By canceling Ares I, NASA would have no backup if the commercial companies were not able to deliver. One likely competitor for the commercial crew contract is Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX for short. But its Falcon 9 rocket, the one that would be used to carry astronauts to the space station, has yet to have its first launching. When SpaceX, a startup led by Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal, won in 2006 a contract to carry cargo to the space station, the company said it would have six flights of the Falcon 9 by the end of 2009. Conversely, another likely competitor, United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has decades of experience building space hardware for NASA, and its rockets, the Delta IV and the Atlas V, have successfully carried military and commercial satellites to space. But modifications needed for carrying astronauts could be costly and the launch alliance has also experienced delays and cost overruns. NASA has also not yet spelled out how it would go about verifying that commercial rockets are sufficiently safe for carrying astronauts. A worry is also that the decades of expertise and experience within NASA in operating spacecraft will be lost, and that the commercial companies might stumble as they learn. A move to an international collaboration would also make future exploration programs susceptible to buffeting from diplomatic winds on Earth. For example, after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, lawmakers questioned whether the United States should continue flying astronauts on the Russian Soyuz rockets. While more countries would share the cost, an international collaboration would probably be more expensive and cumbersome to manage, and could be slowed down by delays of any of the partners. “I’m optimistic this provides a path to a long term and sustainable and high quality program,” Dr. Logsdon said. “But I think there will be a lot of debate over the details over the next few months.” Judge blocks Oklahoma's ban on Islamic law By Matt Smith, CNN November 8, 2010 5:30 p.m. EST STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: "Fearmongering" fueled amendment, plaintiff says Oklahoma voters passed the state ban by a 7-3 ratio Muslims argue the measure violates the U.S. Constitution RELATED TOPICS Oklahoma Constitutional Law Sharia Law (CNN) -- A federal judge Monday blocked an amendment to Oklahoma's state constitution that would bar the use of Islamic religious law in state courts after American Muslims challenged the proposal in court. Oklahoma voters approved the amendment in last week's elections by a 7-3 ratio. But the Council on American-Islamic Relations challenged the measure as a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a temporary restraining order Monday morning that will keep state election officials from certifying that vote. "What this amendment is going to do is officially disfavor and condemn the Muslim community as being a threat to Oklahoma," said Muneer Awad, executive director of CAIR's Oklahoma chapter and the lead plaintiff in the suit. In addition, he said, it would invalidate private documents, such as wills, that are written in compliance with Muslim law. Miles-LaGrange set a November 22 date for further arguments on the issue. The amendment's leading sponsor, Republican state Rep. Rex Duncan, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The amendment would require Oklahoma courts to "rely on federal and state law when deciding cases" and "forbids courts from considering or using" either international law or Islamic religious law, known as Sharia, which the amendment defined as being based on the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. In bringing suit, CAIR argued that the amendment violates both the establishment and free-exercise clauses of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom. Awad said the amendment passed "under a campaign of fearmongering" about Islam. The entire U.S. Muslim population is about 2.4 million -- less than 1 percent of the country, according to a 2009 survey by the nonprofit Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But supporters said a New Jersey case, in which a judge refused to grant a restraining order against a Muslim man whose wife accused him of raping her repeatedly, made it necessary for Oklahoma to take action to keep Islamic law from being imposed there. The New Jersey decision, in which the family court judge found the husband was abiding by his Muslim beliefs regarding spousal duties, was overruled by an appellate court. But in automated phone messages in support of the amendment, former CIA Director and Oklahoma native James Woolsey warned that there was a "major campaign in Europe to impose Sharia law" and that Islamic law "is beginning to be cited in a few U.S courts." Nationally, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called for a federal ban on the recognition of Islamic law in U.S. courts. And critics of a planned Islamic center and mosque in lower Manhattan, near the site of September 11, 2001, attack by al Qaeda terrorists that destroyed the World Trade Center, cited fears of Sharia law in opposing the project. Oklahoma City was the site of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil before 2001. The 1995 bombing of the state capital's federal building left 168 dead. Timothy McVeigh, a white supremacist anti-government activist and former U.S. soldier, was executed for the attack in 2001. * Home * News * National * Published 09:48 26.07.10 * Latest update 09:48 26.07.10 Oliver Stone: Jewish control of the media is preventing free Holocaust debate Outspoken Hollywood director says new film aims to put Adolf Hitler, who he has called an 'easy scapegoat' in the past, in his due historical context. By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Holocaust Adolf Hitler US Jews Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years. In the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the "Jewish domination of the media," adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "in context." "There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington." The famed Hollywood director of such films as Platoon and JFK, also said that while "Hitler was a Frankenstein," there was also a "Dr Frankenstein." "German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support," Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed]." Referring to the alleged influence of the powerful Jewish lobby on U.S. foreign policy, Stone said that Israel had distorted "United States foreign policy for years," adding he felt U.S. policy toward Iran was "horrible." "Iran isn't necessarily the good guy," Stone said, insisting that Americans did not "know the full story." Stone's comments to the Sunday times echo pervious remarks by the Hollywood director, regarding what he conceives as the distorted view of figures such as Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin in U.S. media. Earlier this year, Stone, speaking at the at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena said that "Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply." "He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect ... People in America don't know the connection between World War I and World War II, Stone said adding that through his documentary work he has been able to "walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view." "We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated," Stone said. "Using Windows in XOs has many implications. ...it means you are forcing a company's products on all children....I don't understand how someone can impose the monopoly of using a vendor-specific software on all kids. " Regardless what you might have read in the popular press/blogs, what OLPC and MS agreed on is having an option of a 'dual-boot' XOs - ie. increasing the customers' choice rather than the other way around (and, as a result, having XO in places where only MS-based PCs would have been purchased otherwise...) Surely you're not advocating 'banning' XP on XO ? Not only you can't stop MS working on porting XP to XO from a technical point of view but, more importantly, is also opposite to what OLPC stands for: not just open-source but also open-platform. I guess Ivan Krstić put it the best [1]: " To claim we should prohibit XO customers from running XP in the interest of freedom is to claim everyone should be free to make a choice — as long as it’s a choice we agree with." [1] Ivan Krstić -The paradox of choice ( http://radian.org/notebook/page/8 ) delphi | April 28, 2008 8:39 AM | Reply | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0) I think calling for fork is too early. Sugar will stay GPL whatever Microsoft will do or plans to do. And unless Bill has mircle coder boy, XP has very long road to be delivered with new XO. So maybe let's not call the shots, let's work on Sugar, and try to improve XO. Peteris Krisjanis | April 28, 2008 8:51 AM | Reply | Vote up Vote down (Score: 0) In response to many of the questions regarding the changes in the OLPC project, and specifically the decision to base the project at this juncture to a Microsoft Operating System, proponents of this change have come out swinging against Free Software developers who have worked for the current Free Interface, code named Sugar. A large segment of the critique of the against Free Software developers like Bender is that they have put their "Open Source" agenda above the welfare of the project. Others claim that the "Open Source" advocates should be pleased with the what has already been done and that the project as it stands can either be relaunched or has already met goals. The problem, though, is that in many ways, the marketing and financial positioning of the OLPC program is harder to develop then the hardware and software. And the goals that have been met are small in light of the original mission of the OLPC project. An operating system is more than a commodity. It becomes the looking glass that develops how the user thinks and it literally shapes the mind of it's users. A system which is at it's core designed to disenfranchise users from the learning experience, especially in how the user views the software itself through learned expectations, and forces information access through monopolistic channels and filters, undermines the development of critical thinking skills. In geek terms, the operating system reprograms the end user. The Microsoft operating system is designed to do so from the ground up. It is in fact the only intended use of the Microsoft Windows Operating System franchise. The interaction between technology on human and societal development dates to the beginning of civilization, if not even before that. One interesting scholarly article on the topic which is archived at http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources/technology_changes_how_we_think.txt by Robin Wilson explores how the Gutenberg printing printing press causes an explosion of mathematical usage and development, and how a large part of that was developed by the standardization of mathematical symbols for universal communication and expression. " Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press (around 1440) revolutionised mathematics, enabling classic mathematical works to be widely available for the first time. Previously, scholarly works, such as the classical texts of Euclid, Archimedes and Apollonius had been available only in manuscript form, but the printed versions made these works much more widely available. At first the new books were printed in Latin or Greek for the scholar, and many scholarly editions appeared. The earliest printed version of Euclid's Elements, published in Venice in 1482, and there is an attractive 1492 edition of Ptolemy's Almagest. Apollonius's Conics appeared in 1537, and seven years later the works of Archimedes were published in both Latin and Greek, and there was a celebrated edition of Diophantus's Arithmetic in 1621, reissued in 1670, with the Greek text, a Latin translation by Bachet, and comments by Fermat, including his famous marginal comment on the 'last theorem'. .... The invention of printing also led to the gradual standardisation of mathematical notation. In particular, the arithmetical symbols + and -“ first appeared in a 1489 arithmetic text by Johann Widmann. Surprisingly, the symbols x and (division sign) were not in general use until the seventeenth century “ we'll see how — developed shortly; the division sign· was introduced by John Pell. Needless to say, the quality of the mathematical printing in those days was very variable. Here we see two version of Pascal's arithmetical triangle from the same year, 1545: Stifel's publisher was having a good day, while Scheubelius was less fortunate." The most important point Wilson makes as relating to the OLPC project is in these paragraphs: "Record was such a fine lecturer that his audience regularly applauded his lectures. We don't know what he looked like. For a long time, there was only one known picture of him, but recently severe doubts have been raised as to its authenticity. One might well ask: ‘Is this a Record?' Record's books were written in English, and ran to many editions. The ground of artes of 1543 was an arithmetic book explaining the various rules so simply that "everie child can do it". As with all his books, it was written in the form of a Socratic dialogue between a scholar and his master." Prior to this era of copyright and DRM encumbered communications, the printing press caused a prodigious discovery of the potential of the human intellect and from it's most early uses western masters used it to communicate with the masses, specifically targeting children for education. The art of printing explodedr. It's teaching as a trade, science and technology every bit as vital to the democratization and economic development that the West would experience as any other cultural influence. From that very day in around 1440 when the press was invented it became the essential tool of Western advancement, more important that gunpowder or navigational tools. In the short 600 years since technology has revolutionized communications, through the printing era, into the wireless and wired analog era, through the broadcast media era and on until to today's digital media humanity has evolved directly in response to the use, development, deployment and education of state of the art communications media, while diverse (classically defined) liberal education became the cornerstone of worldwide civilization as it has spread from the West to every corner of the globe. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in her ground breaking book, "Infidel", repeatedly describes how her interaction with libraries and booksi influenced her thinking and growth. Why surrounded by a world of Islamic Brotherhood lectures and learnings with the repeated mantra of "TOTAL OBEDIENCE" repeated by local figures in her life such as Boqol Sawm and Sister Aziza, Hirsi-Ali found comfort in cheap romantic novels. This unlikely wellspring of Western learning deeply impressed upon her what possiblities she could inspire towards. She writes, " But the allure of romance called to us from the pages of books. In school we read good books, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, and Daphne du Maurier; out of school Halwaa's sisters kept us supplied with cheap Harlequins. These were trashy soap opera-like novels, but they were exciting — sexually exciting." Hirsi-Ali has the advantage of literacy and the support of a free press. The purpose of the OLPC project is also literacy. Not just the literacy of the pen, and the literacy of mathematics, politics and arts, but computer literacy, the new medium which will be required for the development of children worldwide to fully share in our emerging enriched worldwide culture. There are too many stumbling blocks even for Westerner to overcome as there is. The quoted material above was far too arduous from me gather into this message. The text, instead of being able to be be quickly cut and pasted into this window had to be typed by hand because online resources like Google-Books have been legally prevented from making it available as text. It was only because of my 20 years of steep education in this topic, and my ability to reverse engineer the protections that have been enforced in this media that I was able even locate the appropriate material to present on this point to an interested public. The Microsoft Operating system is designed to restrict digital access to information in order to optimize a monopolistic, non-competitive agenda, the most essential restriction being the discovery of the basic tools and carnal knowledge of the computer systems internals, both hardware and softwar. The modern printing press, itself has been shrouded in secrecy. This directly conflicts with the core OLPC charter and goal. While that can be ridiculed as an "Open Source" agenda, an irrational hangup, I'd argue based on the historical evidence that the accusatory tone of such statements make are fundamentally flawed and very much more in line with the kind of rationality which one might expect from a despot philosophy such as which might come from controlling Communist Party in today's Red China. The agenda, design and functionality of the Sugar interface, and it's origins in GNU software and and the technologic secifications Linux kernels, not to exclude arguments about the merits of it's politics is specious and spurious. Oxymoronic as that may sound, it is not the devotion to "Open Source" which makes the move from Sugar to Microsoft Software untenable to the goals of the One Laptop Per Child program. It is the change from a classically Liberal based education program, a cornerstone and application of Western and world progress, to a regressive monopolistic platform which inhibits by design those Western values most critical to transmit and the knowledge that humanity has aquired so that it can be adapted to other native cultures and thereby help assure the survival all of mankind as a free, informed and tolerant civilization. What, may I ask, is it intended that we teach these children in the third world with a billion laptops? That is the only relevant question. Sugar is designed from the ground up to answer this question. Obviously the Microsoft product have no such agenda. March 23, 2009 Unlikely Opponents of Bridge Tolls: Transit Riders By WILLIAM NEUMAN A small group of Democratic state senators from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx have blocked a financial rescue proposal for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority because it would require tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges. They have taken this position even though the plan is meant to help hold down transit fares, and in their districts — as in the city overall — commuters who ride subways and buses easily outnumber those who drive to work. But interviews with residents in these districts revealed that the holdout legislators have tapped into a concern shared by many of their constituents, even among those where it might be least unexpected: transit riders. And while toll opponents made up a spirited minority among straphangers interviewed in recent days, their views stood out, because they were both unexpected and passionately held. “I think it’s unfair to tax drivers to pay for those using public transportation,” Serena Burch, 37, said as she waited on a recent afternoon for a bus near Brooklyn College, where she is a full-time student. “Why should the bridge commuters pay for the subway commuters in Brooklyn?” Ms. Burch, who lives near Kings Plaza, did not know who her senator was or what his position was on tolls. But as it turned out, they were in agreement. Her senator is Carl Kruger, who has been one of the staunchest opponents of new tolls. Ms. Burch said she would be against the tolls even if establishing them would help keep transit fares lower. Several blocks away, Celia Groenveldt, a Flatbush resident, waiting on the platform at the Newkirk Avenue station of the Nos. 2 and 5 trains. Her senator is Kevin S. Parker, another outspoken toll opponent. She was pleased to find that he was against tolls on what have long been free bridges. “It shuts everyone out who can’t afford to get into the city or through the city,” said Ms. Groenveldt, a bookkeeper who works in Manhattan. In the Soundview section of the Bronx, John Garcia, 33, a plumber with a job in Manhattan, is represented by Senator Rubén Díaz Sr., another vocal toll opponent. Mr. Garcia said that even though he was a regular subway rider, he worried about the effect of tolls on the small businesses that frequently use the Harlem River bridges. “Tolling the bridges is going to hurt a lot of people that own plumbing companies, construction companies, cabs, deliverymen,” Mr. Garcia said, adding that he would prefer higher subway fares to new tolls. Several subway riders said they opposed both tolls and higher fares and expressed a deep distrust of the transportation authority. “The whole organization is very inefficient,” said Boris Gertsberg, 33, a software developer who lives in Mr. Kruger’s district in Brooklyn and takes the subway daily to his office in Manhattan. He said he did not drive a car but was still against tolls. “I don’t think looking at hiking fares or putting tolls is the right way to solve the budgetary crisis they’re in,” he said. The interviews were conducted as a proposed rescue plan for the financially troubled authority was stalled in the Senate. The plan, which includes tolls and a payroll tax, is supported by Gov. David A. Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The plan also called for fare revenues to increase by 8 percent, and is intended to prevent a raft of service cuts and a 23 percent jump in fare revenues that the authority says will be necessary if no rescue is passed. The new tolls would match the subway fare, which is $2. The Senate is controlled by Democrats, who have a 32-to-30 seat edge over Republicans. But about six Democrats have said they oppose the tolls and have prevented the plan from passing. Instead, Senate leaders last week offered their own, toll-free plan, with a 4 percent fare increase, but it was rejected by the governor, Mr. Silver and authority officials, who said it did not provide enough revenue to support the authority over the long term. While straphangers who opposed tolls were in the minority of those interviewed, far more common in the interviews last week were transit riders who feared the looming fare increases and supported bridge tolls. “I will support anything that would cause less money to come out of my pocket,” said Melissa Jean, who lives in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, in Mr. Kruger’s district. Kelvin Ruiz, 19, lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, in the district of another antitoll senator, Hiram Monserrate. Mr. Ruiz, who hopes to become a policeman, attends school at John Jay College in Manhattan and works at a gift shop in Rockefeller Center. He said he earned little and that transit costs were already a burden. The monthly MetroCard he regularly buys could rise to $103, from $81, under the authority’s proposed fare increases. “The M.T.A. affects more people,” he said in explaining why fares should be kept down at the expense of toll-paying drivers. Few of those interviewed could not identify their state senator or what his stance on the tolls. Many directed their anger over rising fares at the authority or Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has no direct control over fares. But some expressed anger at the politicians who might block the authority rescue. “I don’t think it’s fair either way, but worst-case scenario is raising” the fares, said Jeanette Rodriguez, 38, who takes the bus and subway from her home in the University Heights section of the Bronx to her job as an office manager at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. When told that her senator, Pedro Espada Jr., was a toll opponent, she expressed displeasure. “He’s not really in favor of the commuters,” she said. “If you’re in favor of raising the fare, who knows what’s next?” In all of these Senate districts, data from the 2000 census shows that transit commuters make up a hefty majority. Data from more recent census surveys reinforces that conclusion. In Mr. Kruger’s district, the 2000 census estimated that about 56,000 people regularly took public transportation to work, while about 47,000 drove to work, according to data compiled by the Regional Plan Association, a civic organization that supports the authority rescue. But among those drivers, only about 6,000 drove to jobs in Manhattan, and a majority of them would be expected to pay the new tolls. The census estimated that there were about 64,000 transit commuters in Mr. Parker’s district in 2000, compared with about 36,000 auto commuters, about 5,000 of whom drove to jobs in Manhattan. By another measure, in East Flatbush, one of the neighborhoods in Mr. Parker’s district, the percentage of workers who commute by transit rose to 68 percent in 2007, from 62 percent in 2000, according to a recent report by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University. Mr. Parker said that he opposed the authority proposal in part because he believed that money from bridge tolls should be used for bridge maintenance, not financing mass transit. He said he had heard from both sides among his constituents and would not make his decision based on the preponderance of transit users over drivers. “I don’t think just about my district,” Mr. Parker said. “I think about everybody in Brooklyn, everybody in the City of New York and the people of the state, and I don’t think this is the best way to do this, particularly when there are other alternatives.” Annie Correal, Mick Meenan and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting. 100 Pakistani Soldiers Kidnapped By Associated Press August 31, 2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Islamic militants ambushed a large convoy of military vehicles in troubled northwestern Pakistan yesterday, kidnapping more than 100 soldiers after seizing their weapons, officials said. The soldiers were traveling in 16 trucks and providing security for trucks carrying food between Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, and Ladha, another town in the region, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because of agency policy. One of the officials said nearly 100 soldiers were kidnapped, while the other said there were between 100 and 120 soldiers taken. There was no indication if there was a battle or if anyone was wounded in the incident, they said. "We confirm that several military vehicles were ambushed, and scores of our soldiers are missing, but we have no further details," said an army official based near the capital, Islamabad, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue. The reports could not be independently confirmed because the region is remote and dangerous. A senior intelligence official in South Waziristan said about 100 soldiers were leaving Wana by road when hundreds of militants attacked them. "Efforts are under way to trace and rescue the missing soldiers," he said. Taliban Leader Calls Cease-Fire Within Pakistan Move Part of Peace Talks By Candace Rondeaux and Imtiaz Ali Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, April 25, 2008; A01 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 24 -- A top Taliban leader in Pakistan with links to al-Qaeda has ordered his followers to stop attacking Pakistani forces in the country's troubled northwest region as he negotiates a deal with the new government to end months of political violence, according to Taliban and Pakistani officials. Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused of masterminding the December assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, ordered the cease-fire as part of an agreement that calls for prisoner exchanges and a withdrawal of Pakistani military forces from areas near the Afghan border. The new government's talks with Mehsud, which resemble past efforts to disarm Islamist groups through negotiations that ended in failure, mark the sharpest break yet with the hard-line security policy followed by U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf. U.S. officials expressed concern that negotiations with perhaps the country's most notorious Islamist commander would fail to bring a lasting solution to Pakistan's political tumult. There were conflicting accounts of how much progress had been made toward an accord with Mehsud, who in 2005 agreed to a cease-fire that collapsed last fall. Mehsud's followers said Pakistani security forces had already begun to withdraw from the restive tribal areas of North and South Waziristan as part of the accord still being negotiated. "We have reached a final stage of an agreement with the Pakistani authorities for a peace deal," said Maulvi Omar, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban. But Pakistani officials familiar with the terms of the deal said negotiations were ongoing. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistani military, denied that troops had moved out of the region. "We have not received pullout orders from the government as yet. When they are received, we will follow the government's order," Abbas said. A Pakistani official in Islamabad said the negotiations with Mehsud and other pro-Taliban fighters were handled by provincial government officials in the North-West Frontier Province in consultation with two of Pakistan's top political leaders, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. "In principal, a negotiations route has been agreed upon to ensure peace also while keeping up pressure of force on those who will not lay down arms," said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the country's ruling Pakistan People's Party. Babar declined to discuss specifics of the deal with Mehsud, but he said the government is negotiating with a number of pro-Taliban groups. The move by Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its anti-terrorism efforts, has been received cautiously by U.S. officials here and has provoked skepticism from the White House. Under Musharraf, Pakistan has previously brokered peace deals with extremists that eventually collapsed. Critics say the deals allowed Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters -- including Mehsud's group, one of the country's largest -- to recruit and lead guerrilla operations across the Afghan border. "We have been concerned about these types of approaches because we don't think they work," White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Wednesday in Washington. CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has said his agency has concluded that pro-Taliban allies of Mehsud and al-Qaeda were behind the suicide bombing that killed Bhutto in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in December. In March, Pakistani authorities filed formal charges against Mehsud and four other men accused of planning the attack. Mehsud has reportedly denied involvement. Omar, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said the newly formed coalition government in Pakistan has accepted several of the extremists' demands, including the withdrawal of Pakistani security forces from the country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and a prisoner exchange. The agreement also calls for compensation for the families of people killed in military operations in the region and a promise to cease arresting tribesmen suspected of ties to the Taliban or al-Qaeda, Omar said. "Everything has been decided, and now it's a matter of a few days and everybody will see the agreement very soon," the Taliban spokesman said. "We are very hopeful that [the] Pakistani government will abide by the agreement, which will usher in a new era of peace in the region." Omar vowed, however, to continue fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. "The presence of the U.S and NATO forces in Afghanistan is the mother of all ill and there will be no peace until their presence in the region has ended," he said. Pakistani officials in Islamabad have shied away from speaking publicly about the agreement with Mehsud or other extremists. But several officials acknowledged Thursday that talks were underway. "We have formed different teams for talking with militants, including Baitullah Mehsud," said Arshad Abdullah, provincial law minister in the North-West Frontier. Provincial government officials in the North-West Frontier said the negotiations started several months before the secular Awami National Party was swept into power in the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections on a promise to quell the violence that has rocked the region. "We are not the architects of this agreement because it started months before our coming into power," said Afrasiab Khattak, provincial head of the Awami National Party. "We are in touch with all and a peace deal is possible." This week, Pakistani authorities released another pro-Taliban leader as part of a deal reached between officials in the North-West Frontier and Islamist fighters in the region. Sufi Mohammad, the founder of one of Pakistan's most extreme religious groups, was captured after inciting fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001. While Mohammad has pledged to encourage his fighters to lay down their arms, his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah, another extremist leader, this week vowed to continue attacks on government forces and to push for the enforcement of a strict version of Islamic law in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Ali reported from Peshawar. Post a Comment View all comments t Obama Pledges New Aid to Palestinians Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Wednesday. By HELENE COOPER and ISABEL KERSHNER Published: June 9, 2010 WASHINGTON — President Obama urged the Israeli government to loosen its blockade of Gaza on Wednesday, as the United States continued to scramble to find a way out of the stalemate in the Middle East and address the outcry over Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last week. Mr. Obama, meeting with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, at the White House, also promised a $400 million aid package for the West Bank and Gaza, though only about $70 million represented a new commitment. White House officials said the money would be spent on housing, schools, efforts to provide access to drinking water and other health and infrastructure projects. The details of how the aid would be used in Gaza remained unclear. Nor was it immediately clear how Mr. Abbas, who has authority in the West Bank but not in Gaza, would be able to administer it. Gaza has faced an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007. An Israeli raid that thwarted a Turkish-led flotilla carrying aid and activists toward Gaza last week intensified international protests over the blockade, which Mr. Obama has called “unsustainable.” Israel contends that the blockade is necessary to prevent the smuggling of arms to Hamas, the militant Islamist organization that governs Gaza and opposes Israel’s existence. Administration officials and their European allies have been pressing the Israeli government to partly lift the blockade to allow a freer flow of nonmilitary goods. “We, and I think President Abbas agrees with this, recognize that Israel should not have missiles flying out of Gaza into its territories,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday. “And so there should be a means by which we are able to stop the flow of arms that could endanger Israel’s security.” “At the same time,” the president added, “we’re doing so in a way that allows the people in Gaza to live out their aspirations and their dreams both for themselves and their children. And that’s something that we’re going to spend a lot of time focusing on, and we’ve already begun some hardheaded discussions with the Israelis in achieving that.” Mr. Obama said that “there should be some ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza.” In the past few days, Israel has added juice and preserves to the basic supplies it allows into Gaza but has denied that this signaled any change in policy as a result of international pressure. An Israeli security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under army rules, said the broadening of the list of supplies was “the continuation of a process” that had been going on for months. International organizations working in Gaza have warned of growing hardship. Deprived of raw materials, local industry has been severely damaged, and the Gaza economy has collapsed. “It is not enough to permit Gaza residents to purchase Israeli-made cookies,” Gisha, an advocacy group that focuses on freedom of movement for Palestinians, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Israel should stop banning raw materials such as industrial margarine and glucose, so that Gaza residents can produce their own cookies and restart the economy that has been paralyzed for three years.” Mr. Obama is trying to steer Palestinians back to the negotiating table with Israelis, while at the same time trying to persuade Israelis that the United States and his administration have Israel’s best interests at heart. Many Israelis blame Mr. Obama for Mr. Abbas’s refusal so far to engage in direct negotiations. When Mr. Obama demanded last year that Israel freeze construction of settlements in the West Bank, a demand that Israel refused, many Palestinian officials said afterward that they could not go ahead with direct negotiations. But in the past, Palestinians had often entered direct negotiations with Israel absent such a freeze. Mr. Abbas is still seeking some sort of gesture, either from the Americans or from the Israelis, administration officials said, before he will enter direct negotiations. “The Palestinian position is that we’ve been engaged with Mitchell,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former negotiator with the Palestinian Authority, referring to Mr. Obama’s Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell. “We’ve given position papers to Mitchell. We don’t have a problem with moving to direct talks, but before that the Israelis have to present their positions to the administration.” Israeli officials counter that they do not want to offer their positions before direct talks begin, because that would be akin to negotiating against themselves. After Mr. Obama’s meeting with Mr. Abbas, the White House put out a statement that “the president has described the situation in Gaza as unsustainable, and it demands a significant change in strategy.” The statement said that “while we work with our partners in the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt and the international community to put such a strategy in place, these projects represent a down payment on the United States’ commitment to Palestinians in Gaza, who deserve a better life and expanded opportunities, and the chance to take part in building a viable, independent state of Palestine, together with those who live in the West Bank.” Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. JPost.com » Middle East » Article Jul 15, 2008 16:50 'Palestinian court sentences 2 men to death for collaboration with Israel' By JPOST.COM STAFF Print Subscribe Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com E-mail Toolbar Share article: What's this? Decrease text size Decrease text size Increase text size Increase text size A Palestinian court in Jenin sentenced two Palestinians to death by firing squad on Tuesday on charges of collaboration with Israel, Reuters reported. According to the military court, Wael Said Saad and Mohammad Saad had "contacted the enemy" and were found guilty of "treason." The verdict could not be appealed. But the sentencing was unlikely to be carried out because it had to first be ratified by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, something that, according to Reuters, he has never done before. What Pilots Can Teach Hospitals About Patient Safety By KATE MURPHY Wearing scrubs and slouching in their chairs, the emergency room staff members, assembled for a patient-safety seminar, largely ignored the hospital’s chief executive while she made her opening remarks. They talked on their cellphones and got up to freshen their coffee or snag another danish. But the room became still and silent when an airline pilot who used to fly F-14 Tomcats for the Navy took the lectern. Handsome, upright and meticulously dressed, the pilot began by recounting how in 1977, a series of human errors caused two Boeing 747s to collide on a foggy runway in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people. Riveted, a surgeon gripped his pen with both hands as if he might break it, an anesthetist stopped maniacally chewing his gum, and a wide-eyed nurse bit her lip. An attention grabber, yes, but what does an airplane crash have to do with patient safety? A growing number of health care providers are trying to learn from aviation accidents and, more specifically, from what the airlines have done to prevent them. In the last five years, several major hospitals have hired professional pilots to train their critical-care staff members on how to apply aviation safety principles to their work. They learn standard cockpit procedures like communication protocols, checklists and crew briefings to improve patient care, if not save patients’ lives. Though health care experts disagree on how to incorporate aviation-based safety measures, few argue about the parallels between the two industries or the value of borrowing the best practices. Spurred by a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academies, titled “To Err Is Human,” which estimated that as many as 98,000 patients die annually from preventable medical errors, and by more recent bad publicity from mistakes like amputations of the wrong limbs, many health care providers are redoubling their efforts to improve patient safety. “We’re where the airline industry was 30 years ago” when a series of fatal mistakes increased scrutiny and provoked change, said Dr. Stephen B. Smith, chief medical officer at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the teaching hospital for the University of Nebraska. It is well established that, like airplane crashes, the majority of adverse events in health care are the result of human error, particularly failures in communication, leadership and decision-making. “The culture in the operating room has always been the surgeon as the captain at the controls with a crew of anesthesiologists, nurses and techs hinting at problems and hoping they will be addressed,” Dr. Smith said. “We need to change the culture so communication is more organized, regimented and collaborative, like what you find now in the cockpit of an airplane.” After the Canary Islands accident, NASA convened a panel to address aviation safety and came up with a program called Cockpit or Crew Resource Management. The Federal Aviation Administration requires that all pilots for commercial airlines and the military undergo the training. They learn, among other things, to recognize human limitations and the impact of fatigue, to identify and effectively communicate problems, to support and listen to team members, resolve conflicts, develop contingency plans and use all available resources to make decisions. Recognizing the positive impact of the program on the aviation industry’s safety record, the Institute of Medicine in 2001 recommended similar training for health care workers. The National Academies, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement also advocate the training, as well as the use of other aviation-inspired practices like pre- and post-operative briefings, simulator training, checklists, annual competency reviews and incident reporting systems. The British medical journal BMJ, The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Journal of Critical Care have also published research suggesting that hospitals that adopt these measures have fewer malpractice suits and postsurgical infections. Patient recovery times tend to be lower, and employee satisfaction is higher. With these endorsements, and with the airline industry cutting salaries, benefits and flight time, many pilots have become part-time health care consultants. For fees that range from $7,000 to $40,000, they offer training and help devise and put in place systemwide safety protocols and procedures. Among the growing number of health care institutions that have hired aviation consultants or adopted aviation safety practices in the last five years are Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; the University of Nebraska; and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “The trend is not surprising given the similarities between health care and aviation,” said Dr. David M. Gaba, associate dean of immersive and simulation-based learning at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. “Both involve hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror,” he said. In addition to sometimes having to make life-and-death decisions in seconds, pilots and physicians also tend to be highly skilled, Type A personalities, who rely heavily on technology to do their jobs. Even so, some hospital administrators and experts in human factors argue that aviation safety principles are not wholly transferable to health care. “Medicine is a more complex environment with more professionals interacting than in aviation,” said Robert Helmreich, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and director of its Human Factors Research Project, which studies team performance and the influence of culture and behavior in aviation and health care. The definition of an error in health care, Professor Helmreich said, is “fuzzier” than in aviation, where it is easier to identify a “foul-up” and who was responsible. Health care providers’ fear of litigation and losing their medical licenses also hinders the honest reporting of mistakes, whereas aviators are often inoculated against punishment if they promptly report incidents to the authorities. Training programs developed by pilots without knowledge of health care realities can be “appallingly bad,” he said. More successful are programs developed by consulting firms like LifeWings in Memphis and the Surgical Safety Institute in Tampa, Fla., both of which have professional pilots and physicians developing their training materials and serving on their advisory boards. Some institutions, like Johns Hopkins, have created their own in-house training programs and safety structures based on aviation. “Aviation provided us with the ideas, which we then modified for health care as well as our particular situation,” said Dr. Peter Pronovost, the director of the Center of Innovation in Quality Patient Care at Johns Hopkins. Employees who work at hospitals that have adopted these kinds of aviation-based safety programs are mostly enthusiastic. Many say they are more confident doing their jobs thanks to posted checklists, which, for example, include reminders to wash their hands, confirm the identity of the patient and check for drug allergies. They appreciate the fact that they are now not only encouraged to speak up if they are concerned about something, but also required to do so. “Communication is so much better,” said Shelly Schwedhelm, a nurse and director of perioperative and emergency services at Nebraska Medical Center, which instituted aviation-style safety measures a year ago. “We now have debriefings after every surgery, during which we identify what we could do better but also what went right,” she said. “I’m hearing compliments and acknowledgment, which has really boosted morale.” Still, some doctors balk at the rote quality of the procedures, claiming that they are unnecessary and undermine their authority. “I had one surgeon tell me that checklists are for the lame and weak,” said Professor Helmreich of the University of Texas. Even the most recalcitrant tend to come around, however, when a safety check catches one of their mistakes, possibly saving a patient and preventing a malpractice suit. “I’m seeing errors caught virtually every day” in the operating room, said Dr. Timothy Dowd, the chairman of the anesthesiology department at Vassar Brothers, where critical-care staff members underwent aviation-based patient-safety training six months ago. “Even the most curmudgeonly surgeon has to admit this is a better way,” he said. Home * World * U.S. * N.Y. / Region * Business * Technology * Science * Health * Sports * Opinion * Arts * Style * Travel * Job Market * Real Estate * Automobiles * Back to Top Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company * Privacy Policy * Search * Corrections * RSS * First Look * Help * Contact Us * Work for Us * Site Map t is one of the oldest buildings in Brooklyn, a weighty stone edifice built with the mid-19th century’s mix of optimistic excesses and get-ahead practicality. It echoes a time when construction followed the principle that the total tons of the stone used should produce a rough approximation of the status of what lay within. Like a medieval cathedral or castle this monument to America’s expanding economy was built to last far into a future that seemed boundless. For over a century it didn’t take a very sophisticated scale to deduce that this particular building stood for prosperity in this borough of a city that legitimately could claim to being the world’s business center. Even as Brooklyn’s fortunes changed with the economy, this building seemed to project a certain Gibraltar-like immunity to conquest, for within it lay no rust belt dinosaur but the guts of one of the most profitable sectors of the American economy, one that seemed to possess a certain immunity to the normal economic ebb and flow because what it produced had always been needed and for much of the last half century had been consumed in such prodigious quantities that it gave Wall Street stock brokers wet dreams. The original building was constructed in 1849 by German immigrant cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhar, entrepreneurial pioneers on the order of Goodyear, Westinghouse and Ford who like the others hitched their fortunes to a new product, in this case chemicals and drugs. Within 10 years the fledgling company was making more than a dozen chemicals and medicines. A firm that started out producing the equivalent of snake oil by the thousands became an internationally-respected corporation that created elixirs that literally saved lives by ending what formerly had been certain death sentences. During World War II, Pfizer played a major role in helping to win the war by gambling their resources to produce penicillin by deep tank fermentation, a process that enabled them to mass produce the drug and thereby make it widely available to Allied forces. Arguably, without this advance the course of the war might have gone differently. In 1950 Pfizer launched the broad spectrum antibiotic Terramycin which became the next “wonder drug.” On January 23–a week ago–the unthinkable happened in Brooklyn and in Pfizer facilities across the United Sates as the company announced it would lay off 7,500 workers and turn the stone edifice into a museum. That the announcement?s timing placed it squarely in the middle of the ruckus of Iraq guaranteed it would receive little notice save by those directly affected and the troll-like figures who spend days hunched in front of computer screens manipulating billions as if they were playing video games. Years from now we may realize the Pfizer layoffs and plant closings symbolized something more important than whether Prime Minister Maliki would finally crack down on the Iraqi militias. Currently, the financial sections of newspapers across the country can scarcely contain their giddiness as they herald that America faces an economic revival in which the average worker is doing about as well as any worker has in the history of the world. The New York Times reports that in 2006 the average hourly pay of rank-and-file workers “was a bigger annual raise than any that workers received from the late 1970s to the mid-90s.” The GOP likes to take credit for this by claiming this prosperity grew from the Bush tax cuts which spurred investment and expansion. Yet the Pfizer layoffs reveal much of this overly-enthusiastic optimism has the feel of smoke and mirrors, something the average worker intuitively knows as she or he drives to their job each day wondering if what happened at Pfizer will happen to them. In fact all of us should be asking, if what has been the most profitable area of the American economy is not immune to layoffs is anyone safe anymore? A good deal of the significance of those layoffs lies in Pfizer’s recent history, for the company became exhibit “A” in the growing discontent with excessive executive compensation. What especially drew the ire of even staid publications like Forbes was the compensation paid to recently-fired Pfizer CEO Henry McKinnell which included a phenomenal 72% raise in 2004 over his $9.7 million 2003 salary. At Pfizer?s annual meeting last year, union protesters chanted, “Give it back Hank.” This was among the events that precipitated a large public outcry over executive compensation which resulted in several states passing laws to require companies to disclose executive pay. In January 2006, SEC commissioners voted unanimously to overhaul the way companies report CEO salaries and bonuses. McKinnell”s windfall came even though Pfizer?s stock performance caused The Street.com. to headline a story on the company, “Few Fans for Pfizer,” after its 2004 performance failed to meet expectations and its stock fell near a 52-week low. McKinnell’s outrageous raise prompted a rare agreement between both the AFL-CIO and Warren Buffet. Buffet has identified the ability of corporations to rein in skyrocketing CEO pay as the “acid test” of corporate reform. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka agreed: Outrageous CEO pay and pensions hurt working families, whose life savings and retirements are invested in companies like Pfizer. At a time when working Americans are losing their pensions left and right, working people are shocked by the size of these CEOs’ unjustified golden retirements. The Center for Corporate Policy has pointed out ?between 1970 and 2001, median pay among the top 100 executives rose from 35 times that of the average worker to more than 500 times as much.? They might have cited William Jennings Bryan’s remark, “No one can earn a million dollars honestly.” Yet McKinnell continued at Pfizer until finally in July of last year he was sacked, falling from the height of power with the aid a golden parachute worth $200 million even though Pfizer’s stock dropped 40% during his five-year reign, a reign he opened by proclaiming to Business Week he would raise Pfizer’s earnings by 15% a year. This is the same McKinnell whose business acumen earned him a position as chair of the Business Roundtable that worked with President George W. Bush on issues such as the infamous tax cuts and privatizing Social Security. What the workers received instead was pink slips, pink slips that were the direct result of McKinnell’s mismanagement. Divided among the 7,900 laid off workers McKinnell’s golden parachute would be worth an additional $25,000 per worker. His pay raise would add another $900 to their “severance packages.” But McKinnell isn’t the only one at Pfizer making big bucks at the expense of regular workers. A revealing table in Pfizer’s proxy and information packet for its 2006 annual meeting had a revealing table on page 57 that showed the top four officers under McKinnell earning from $1-3 million if stock incentives are included. Their salaries range from $677,000 with a bonus of $596,000 to more than a million with a bonus on $1.4 million. The total in the bonus column for these four alone over the past three years is an astounding $12,204,000! Now instead imagine those egotistical expenditures invested in something useful, something that would increase the company’s earnings. A new CEO would have somewhere near a quarter of a billion dollars to use to pull Pfizer out of the tail spin that has it laying off workers. Clearly the concept of investing that amount of money in executive salaries has done nothing for Pfizer but lower its stock values. The idea that corporate executives should receive such ridiculous salaries at the same time they are laying off workers because of bad decisions made by these very same executives helps explain why the playing field in America has become so tilted. It also explains why this country’s business performance is becoming a national crisis. The chief symbol of this is that Toyota is now poised to become the world’s largest auto manufacturer. Republicans and the business community in particular like to continually talk about “accountability” in the public sector. “Schools need to be accountable for their performance,” say the CEOs and GOP fat cats. “Government aid programs for health care, child care, job training need to be accountable,” they preach in media interviews and political speeches. And then there is the grandfather of them all dating back at least to the McKinley years, “Government needs to be run more like a business.” Well if government had been run by the likes of the folks who ran Pfizer into the ground, God help us all! If one can’t even make money running a drug company how do they propose to take care of more intractable problems like student performance? The question everyone should be asking is not merely the obvious one of “are these people worth it,” but the more serious one of whether in fact are the high executive salaries paid by American corporations counterproductive? If one accepts the GOP mantra that competition, hard work and a bit of hardship produce results then the idea of high executive salaries runs totally counter to that. Why should I work hard or even care what the results are if I know that no matter what I do I can walk away with $200 million in severance pay, a sum so astounding that those of us who labor this time of year over finding even a few hundred more in deductions on our 1040s simply cannot comprehend it or how one could possibly spend it? But just for the heck of it let’s try to spend it: new car, not just a Chevy or a Toyota, not even a Lexus, let’s go all out and buy a $175,000 Lamborghini Gallardo; new house, how about one of those estates they advertise in the back pages of the New York Times Magazine for, say ten million; clothes, how about $5,000 a month; and then there are the toys, yachts, expensive home entertainment systems, etc. that might get you up to $30-50 million. There’s more: all those tax deductions for rich folks would lower that total, like the Lamborghini “company car” and the estate needed for “entertaining clients.” Even more pointedly, do these executives really need all those millions? Does the Lamborghini allow them to make better decisions? Or the estate? Is there a single neuron in any of them or even a byte or bit that solves problems like Pfizer’s poor performance? As if we don’t need another negative aspect in the Pfizer case, we now come to the outrageous prices Americans are paying for drugs manufactured by the likes of Pfizer. The next time Congress conducts a hearing on the high cost of drugs you might ask your Senator or Representative to grill one of those drug company executives about his or her salary. Meanwhile, every time you go to the pharmacy to fill your prescription, think about Mr. McKinnell’s $200 million golden parachute or the bonuses paid to him and those directly under him and when you hand the cashier your payment think of it as not merely making a payment to your HMO but as a payment to Mr. McKinnell. I call it High Way robbery because the High (and mighty) rob the rest of us in a Way that is inexcusable. However, instead of occupying a cell somewhere, McKinnell is probably relaxing on his yacht in the Caribbean with a drink in his hand smiling about what he managed to pull off, like a bank robber who has masterminded the heist of the century. 

Pfizer, Inc.  Pfizer's history is one of innovation and adventure, of
risks taken and bold decisions made. It is the story of people dedicated
to building a great Company with a noble purpose - helping people live
longer, healthier lives. for other industry players launching innovative
medicines, Pfizer is, according to Business Week, "poised to become the
new drug-industry leader." "AT PFIZER, WE HAVE A TRADITION OF CONQUERING
UNCHARTED TERRITORY. As a team, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart fostered
a pioneering spirit that has endured at their Company for over 150 years.

Cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart emigrated from Ludwigsburg,
Germany, in the mid-1840s. In Germany, Charles Pfizer had learned
chemistry as an apothecary's apprentice, while Erhart became a
confectioner - a trade he learned from his uncle, Carl Frederick
Pfizer. In America, the cousins united their skills and in 1849 founded
a chemical firm, Charles Pfizer & Company. The Company began operations
in the Williamsburg community of Brooklyn, New York.

They decided to make santonin - a treatment for parasitic worms that
was effective but intensely bitter - more palatable by blending it with
almond-toffee flavoring and shaping it into a candy cone. The product
was an immediate success. Industrialization, transportation systems,
technology, and medical advances opened up a world of opportunity. Pfizer
and Erhart were not ones to sit back and let the world change without
them. When the raw material supply needed to make citric acid, Pfizer's
most important product, dried up during World War I, the Company had
two options: close its doors or find another way to get the job done.

For decades, citric acid was Pfizer's most popular product. When World
War I erupted in 1914, the Italian imports stopped altogether and Pfizer
pursued other supply sources.

A new era dawned in 1917, when Dr. James Currie joined Pfizer. As
a government food chemist, Currie had been studying fermentation in
cheese-making and discovered that one of the by-products was citric
acid. At Pfizer, Currie and an assistant, Jasper Kane, worked in extreme
secrecy. The Company gambled on the process, taking a calculated risk
in turning over its still-profitable borax and boric acid production
facilities to SUCIAC. In time, SUCIAC production began to outperform
conventional extraction from citrus products, and by 1929 Pfizer no longer
needed any imported citrus product at all. Finally, in 1928, Dr. Alexander
Fleming's discovery of penicillin signaled the dawn of modern medicine and
offered real hope in the battle against infection. Armed with increasing
evidence of the remarkable powers of penicillin, but unable to engage
British companies due to the country's involvement in World War II,
the Oxford scientists sought help in America.

In 1941, Pfizer's John Davenport and Gordon Cragwall attended a symposium
at which researchers from Columbia University, building on the work
of British scientists, presented clear data that penicillin could
effectively treat infections. Inspired by the possibilities, the two
men offered Pfizer's assistance. That same year, Pfizer was among the
companies responding to a government appeal to join a high-stakes race to
see which company would develop a way to mass-produce the world's first
"wonder drug."

Beginning with fermentation experiments conducted with the team at
Columbia University, Pfizer would take enormous risks over the next three
years in devoting its energies to penicillin production. In the fall
of 1942, Pfizer scientist Jasper Kane suggested a radically different
approach, proposing that the Company attempt to produce penicillin using
the same deep-tank fermentation methods perfected with citric acid. This
was tremendously risky because it would require Pfizer to curtail the
production of citric acid and other well-established products while it
focused on the development of penicillin. In a small room in the Brooklyn
plant, Pfizer's senior management met to weigh the options - and took
the leap. Pfizer purchased a nearby vacant ice plant, and employees
worked around the clock to convert it and perfect the complex production
process. The plant was up and running in just four months, and soon Pfizer
was producing five times more penicillin than originally anticipated.

Recognizing the superiority of the Pfizer process and desperate
for massive quantities of penicillin to aid in the war effort, the
U.S. government authorized 19 companies to produce the antibiotic
using the Company's deep-tank fermentation techniques, which Pfizer had
agreed to share with its competitors. Despite their access to Pfizer's
technology, none of these companies could come close to Pfizer's
production levels and quality. Indeed, Pfizer produced 90 percent of
the penicillin that went ashore with Allied forces at Normandy on D-Day
in 1944 and more than half of all the penicillin used by the Allies for
the rest of the war, helping to save countless lives.

The race to mass-produce penicillin was over. Pfizer had emerged
victorious, but the real winners were the millions of people who were
to benefit from the wonder drug. Penicillin was a turning point in human
history - the first real defense against bacterial infection.

John Smith, Pfizer President and Chairman of the Board, faced a
particularly difficult dilemma when Dr. Leo Loewe of nearby Brooklyn
Jewish Hospital pleaded with him for penicillin to treat a young girl
who was dying of subacute bacterial endocarditis. Loewe received his
penicillin.

Although penicillin was not thought to be an effective treatment for
subacute bacterial endocarditis, Loewe's intravenous drip worked, and the
little girl recovered. Smith continued to supply Loewe with penicillin
until he was ordered by the government to ship all penicillin supplies
directly to the military. But that order didn't stop people from getting
sick, and Loewe continued to ask Smith for life-saving penicillin. Smith
soon discovered a solution. The Company was allowed eight million units
of penicillin each month for its own uses, presumably research. Smith
shipped much of this to Loewe.

Recognizing that penicillin was only the beginning of an era of
medical breakthroughs in which Pfizer could play a major role, the
Company's scientists began an intensive quest to find new organisms
to fight disease. Emerging theories suggested that bacteria-fighting
organisms would be found in soil, so the Company launched a worldwide soil
collection and testing program. Pfizer solicited and received 135,000 soil
samples and conducted more than 20 million tests. Pfizer eventually hit
"pay dirt," finding a substance that proved effective against a wide range
of deadly bacteria. It became the first product ever to be discovered and
developed exclusively by Pfizer scientists and was named Terramycin®,
because it came from the earth (terra, in Latin). One week before the
patent was issued, Pfizer CEO John Smith died. Pfizer's management
met and agreed to "put it on the line." They honored Smith's wishes. A
formidable new pharmaceutical company had been born.

Since Pfizer's penicillin production breakthrough more than 50 years ago,
the Company has played a leading role in the discovery, development,
and marketing of anti-infective medicine. In December 1997, the Company
received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Trovan®,
the latest entry in a proud tradition of innovative Pfizer products
that includes Terramycin®, Geopen®, Cefobid®, Sulperazon®, Unasyn®,
Vibramycin®, Diflucan®, and Zithromax®.

Courtesy: Pfizer, Inc.
October 14, 2010 Push to End Job Barriers Rattles Greece and Economy By SUZANNE DALEY ATHENS — Antonios Avgerinos, 59, a retired army pharmacist, always wanted his own pharmacy here. And why not? Greek law ensures that pharmacists get a 35 percent profit on all drugs sold, even over-the-counter medications. But Greek law also limits just about everything else about pharmacies. They must be at least 820 feet apart and have a likely market of no fewer than 1,500 residents. To break into the business, an aspiring pharmacist generally has to buy a license from a retiring one. That often costs upward of $400,000. “It is an absurd system,” Mr. Avgerinos said recently. “But it has been that way my whole life.” Maybe not for much longer. As the government of Prime Minster George Papandreou struggles to get the nation’s financial house in order — reducing the size of its bloated civil service, chasing after tax evaders and overhauling its pension system — it has also begun to tackle a much less talked about problem: the cozy system of “closed professions” that has existed here for decades, costing the economy billions of dollars a year. These efforts have prompted almost weekly strikes in the last few months from interest groups firmly opposed to breaking down the barriers to entry in lucrative professional niches. But experts say that much is at stake: Greece’s ability to service its tremendous debt to other European countries and avoid default rests on the government’s ability to inject more competition and dynamism into its sclerotic economy. “Greece is the last Soviet-style economy in Europe,” said Yannis Stournaras, an economist and the director of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, known as IOBE Athens, who has studied the issue. “Other countries have some closed professions. But nothing like Greece. Every stone you turn here, there are regulations.” For selling a cancer drug for $4,200, Mr. Stournaras said, a pharmacist makes a profit of around $1,400. “That’s a movement of the elbow that is more expensive than one of Roger Federer’s.” Experts say there are about 70 closed professions here, including those of lawyers, engineers, taxi drivers, speech therapists, welders, notaries, street market vendors, newsstand operators and architects. Each is protected from competition by a byzantine tangle of regulations and licensing requirements that result in high prices for consumers and a reliable living for insiders. No use shopping around for a less expensive lawyer or notary, for instance. They all charge fixed fees, as do many other professions. There are numerous restrictions on licenses, too. Some are not even available to some classes of citizens. For instance, newsstand licenses are reserved for war veterans, the disabled and those with large families to support. Others are limited, like the number of long-haul trucking licenses, which has been frozen for 25 years. A study carried out by IOBE in 2006 estimated that opening these professions would increase gross domestic product by about $35 billion, or 10 percent, in five years. But nobody expects change to be easy. Already, austerity measures in Europe have prompted unrest here and elsewhere. Thursday saw strikes by civil servants protesting cutbacks in Athens and in France. Many believe that tackling closed professions will mean even more groups taking to the streets. That is what happened this summer when the government took on the trucking industry. Greece has issued only a few new licenses for truckers since 1970, though Greece’s economy has more than tripled in that time. This created a hot market for the licenses, which have sold at prices approaching $500,000. Not surprisingly, experts say, trucking costs in Greece are far higher than anywhere else in the European Union. The IOBE report found it was more expensive to truck something from Athens to Thebes, about 45 miles, than from Athens to Rome, a distance of more than 600 miles. Businessmen say it is cheaper to ship goods here from China than it is to move them from Athens to the island of Rhodes, 285 miles away. But when the government announced that it would begin issuing new licenses over the next three years, the truckers blocked the borders for weeks, creating shortages of all kinds, including fuel. Mr. Papandreou invoked an emergency regulation to force the truckers back to work. Within a few weeks, however, work stoppages began again. The truckers did not cease their occasional blockades until Parliament passed a new law that could see them lose their licenses altogether. For their part, the truckers say they should not be stripped unilaterally of their investment. “All of a sudden you have nothing,” said Vassilis Sachinidis, the president of one of the truckers’ unions, representing about 3,000 owners of trucks with cranes. “That is not right.” After tackling the truckers, the government plans to dismantle the remainder of the closed professions. It is likely, however, that it will wait until after local elections in November. “All these regulations must go away,” said Theodoros Pangalos, Greece’s deputy prime minister. “I don’t understand why there can be only one pharmacy outside a hospital — and often it’s closed. There is surely one pharmacist who would come there and stay open all night, if he had the chance.” But some pharmacists say the proposed changes will surely prompt strikes, and Mr. Avgerinos — who now heads a union of 3,200 pharmacists who have never managed to buy their own pharmacies — is pessimistic about the government’s ability to dislodge such an entrenched system. “People need their prescriptions,” he said. “The government will have to give in.” Greece’s system of closed professions evolved over decades, experts say, with each generation of politicians, whether from the left or the right, essentially buying votes by assuring various groups a hold on lucrative livelihoods. Now, however, Greece is under particular pressure to change. Many of these regulations violate European Union rules on the free movement of goods and services. And Greece’s creditors have demanded an overhaul of the country’s closed professions as part of its rescue plan. The way some professions run here would be hard to fathom elsewhere. In addition to having fixed fees, most lawyers will be admitted to the bars only in their hometowns or in large cities and then can practice only there. And they must participate in a system of wealth redistribution. A percentage of the fees they earn — 12 percent in Athens — goes to their local bar associations, which in turn divvy up most of it among all members. Spilios Spiliakos, 32, an Athens lawyer, says there are so many lawyers in the city that payments from the bar here are very small, perhaps a little over $1,000 twice a year. But in some other parts of the country, fees piling up from expensive real estate transactions mean that lawyers sometimes get checks of $2,800 to $4,200 a month from the bar. While bar associations in the big cities will admit anyone who passes their exams, it is a different story in the smaller towns. “Some lawyers there don’t even have to work,” Mr. Spiliakos said. “But you can’t just go join those bar associations. They wouldn’t let you in. You would have to have some sort of a connection to the town. Usually your family has to be from there.” Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting. i To subscribe or unsubscribelick your browser's PRINT button. NOTE: To view the article with Web enhancements, go to: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/421293 Medication Errors The Role of the Community Pharmacist in Identifying, Preventing, and Resolving Drug-Related Problems Jennifer Cerulli, PharmD, BCPS Medscape Pharmacists 2(2), 2001. 2001 Medscape Portals, Inc Introduction It is estimated that 3% to 10% of hospital admissions are a consequence of drug-related morbidity and mortality, and half of those admissions are preventable.[1] In 1995, the direct annual cost spent on preventable drug-related morbidity and mortality in the US ambulatory population was estimated to be $76.6 billion dollars[2]; in 2000, the amount exceeded $177.4 billion.[3] These preventable negative patient outcomes and their associated costs have caught the attention of patients, healthcare professionals, and governmental agencies.[4] Drug-related morbidity and mortality often are preceded by a drug-related problem.[5] Drug-related problems have been defined as events or circumstances involving a patient's drug treatment that actually, or potentially, interfere with the achievement of an optimal outcome.[6] Most drug-related problems can be assigned to 1 of 8 categories, listed in Table 1.[6-8] Pharmacists in all practice settings have been encouraged to provide pharmaceutical care to identify, prevent, and resolve drug-related problems and reduce negative medication outcomes. Pharmaceutical care has been defined as the responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving defined outcomes that improve a patient's quality of life.[5] A patient-centered, outcomes-oriented practice requires the pharmacist to work in concert with the patient's healthcare team to promote health, prevent disease, and assess, monitor, initiate, and modify medication use to ensure that drug-therapy regimens are safe and effective.[9] The American Pharmaceutical Association has defined the steps that pharmacists should take to provide pharmaceutical care in any setting (Table 2).[9] Studies have shown that pharmacists can reduce medication errors, improve patient outcomes, and decrease costs by providing patient-care services in a variety of settings.[10] Community pharmacists are in a unique position to decrease negative medication outcomes in ambulatory patients. In this setting, pharmacists are readily accessible to their patients and often have existing relationships that can be built on to provide further care. Community Pharmacy Practice For decades, pharmacists in the community setting have performed an invaluable service for patients and their communities by avoiding medication-related problems with the use of a drug utilization review and patient counseling. Although these services were regarded as essential, they often were not documented. As the profession began to emphasize pharmaceutical care and define the role of the pharmacist, it was recognized that there was a paucity of data documenting the community pharmacist's role in ensuring safe medication use. Rupp and colleagues[11,12] conducted a series of studies on prescription-related problems and interventions by community pharmacists. Subsequent publications estimated the direct costs avoided because of pharmacist intervention.[13,14] Trained observers (senior pharmacy students on community pharmacy clerkships) documented pharmacist interventions on new prescriptions. A standard evaluation form was used to document and characterize interventions as errors of omission, errors of commission, drug interactions, or other. Errors of omission occurred when information essential to filling the prescription was missing (ie, drug, dose, or dosage form not specified on the prescription). Because the prescription could not be filled until clarified, those errors were thought to incur minimal risk to the patient. Errors of commission consisted of the prescriber incorrectly specifying the dosage regimen or strength of the prescription or the occurrence of therapeutic duplication. Because the prescription could be filled, those errors could harm the patient. The first series of observations involved 9 community pharmacies filling 5874 new prescriptions.[11] Of those, 2.6% (153) required active intervention by the pharmacist. Approximately one half (51%) of the errors were errors of omission and 29% were errors of commission. A subsequent study used 2 experts in pharmacotherapeutics to evaluate the clinical significance of the prescribing errors and interventions.[13] The expert panel concurred that 38 of the documented errors would have resulted in harm to the patient had the pharmacist not intervened. The estimated direct medical costs avoided (prescriber office visits, emergency-department visits, and hospitalizations) for all 153 interventions was $7.15 per intervention. Although the average time for each intervention was not documented, the investigator assumed an average intervention time of 7 minutes, for a cost of $1.75 (based on $15 per hour) for the pharmacist to intervene. Thus, the cost of intervening was lower than the direct medical costs avoided. The investigators repeated this study with a larger sample of 89 community pharmacies located in 5 states.[12] Of the 33,011 new prescriptions screened, 1.9% required pharmacist intervention. Forty-six percent of the documented prescription problems involved errors of omission, and 36% resulted from errors of commission. A panel of 3 experts reviewed the interventions and concurred that 28.3% (n = 176) of the identified errors could have resulted in harm to the patient if the problem had not been corrected by a pharmacist. The estimated direct costs of medical care avoided were $123.00 per problematic prescription and $2.32 for each new prescription order screened during the study.[14] Pharmacist intervention rate was negatively correlated with the hourly prescription volume (r = -.40, P < .001). Although that study was conducted in 1990, when advanced dispensing technology was not available, it does cause some concern in light of the ever-increasing prescription volume and shortage of pharmacists. In a separate study, pharmacists in 4 community pharmacies documented their interventions for 6000 prescription orders received.[15] Each pharmacy dispensed an average of fewer than 100 prescriptions per day. Investigators provided pharmacists with videotape training and a 15- to 20-minute individual orientation on how to complete the pharmacist intervention form. Participating pharmacists were provided with $50.00 compensation to participate; however, 2 pharmacies declined compensation. Forty-seven interventions were documented, representing 0.78% of the 6000 new prescription orders presented to the pharmacy. The errors of omission accounted for 43.3% of interventions, and errors of commission accounted for 23.4%. Forty-seven percent of the interventions could have resulted in harm to the patient. Two evaluators estimated the value of the interventions to be approximately $3.50 per prescription processed. The intervention rate in that study was lower than those in previous studies, perhaps because of the reliance on pharmacist documentation rather than trained observers. That finding shows the potential barrier of pharmacists providing documentation, even with low prescription volumes. Those studies described pharmacist interventions and the provision of standard pharmacy care. Investigators then examined the ability of a patient-oriented pharmacist to provide pharmaceutical care in the community setting.[16] Pharmacists were provided with a 40-hour education program designed to develop the participants' problem-solving and communication skills. Investigators also restructured the independent community pharmacy. Patients were randomized to an intervention group or control group. The intervention consisted of the pharmacist completing an interview and patient history. The control group received standard counseling. Pharmacists documented the number and types of interventions that occurred over 6 months. Interventions were categorized as prescription-related (errors of omission or commission) or drug-related problems. Of the 91 patients originally randomized to the intervention group, 21% had drug-related problems detected. Of the 905 control patients, 2.9% had problems identified, mainly prescription-related problems. Patients in the intervention group were 9 times more likely to have a problem identified (odds ratio = 8.9, 95% confidence interval = 4.7-16.9). The period spent counseling patients was similar in each group (approximately 2 minutes). In the intervention group, the average time spent with patients was 27 minutes, with the majority of time spent during the initial interview and documentation. Outcome assessment and cost analyses were not conducted. Educational training and completion of patient histories resulted not only in the increased intervention rate but also took the interventions beyond prescription-related errors (errors of commission or omission) toward patient-specific drug-related problems. Obstacles to Pharmaceutical Care There are several obstacles to the provision of pharmaceutical care in the community pharmacy.[8] One important obstacle is the time required to provide care and the lack of reimbursement for that time. As community pharmacists across the country struggle to obtain compensation for the provision of cognitive services, several states have made great progress in providing that compensation. The Wisconsin Medicaid Program Incentive-Based Pharmacy Payment System began in July 1996 to reimburse pharmacists for cognitive services by using a complexity-adjusted fee.[17] When the pharmacy bills for pharmaceutical care services that provide an enhanced fee, the dispensing fee is waived. The fee schedule is based on the level of service (time spent) and the reason, action, and result codes. In the first 14 months of the pilot program, 170 pharmacy providers delivered 1158 pharmaceutical-care services to 1271 patients. After that demonstration project, several managed-care insurers adopted the state's plan for their enrollees. In April 1998, Mississippi became the first state to pay pharmacists to provide disease management for Medicaid patients as a result of a waiver granted from the Health Care Financing Administration.[18] Under that plan, appropriately credentialed pharmacists are reimbursed $20 for each 15- to 30-minute session with patients diagnosed with asthma, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, or coagulation disorders. Pharmacists managing patients referred by their physicians with the use of established protocols must keep records and provide a private consultation area. Other states and pharmacy organizations considering the implementation of similar programs are closely watching the Wisconsin and Mississippi programs. Some difficulties encountered in these programs were defining the credentialing process, developing and maintaining appropriate documentation, and educating eligible patients about the availability of the demonstration programs and the benefits of receiving pharmaceutical care.[19] Patient factors that inhibited communication and participation in the programs were the lack of telephones, permanent addresses, or transportation. Those studies described the impact of the community pharmacist detecting and avoiding prescription errors or drug-related problems. A discussion of the role of the pharmacist in the medication-use process also must include avoiding medication errors during the dispensing process. With the explosion of new medications, an increase in prescription volume, and the expansion of the use of technology and technicians in the dispensing process, it is essential that pharmacists evaluate their dispensing processes to reduce the potential for error. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), a nonprofit organization, has developed the Medication Safety Self-Assessment tool for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy.[20] The tool has the 10 domains that most significantly influence safe medication use. The tool focuses on the entire medication-use process, including communication of prescriptions, drug labeling and packaging, drug storage and distribution, and patient monitoring. The tool contains more than 190 self-assessment characteristics a pharmacy can use to assess the safety of its medication-use process and identify areas for improvement. Pharmacies will be able to enter their data confidentially into the ISMP Web site to receive a report that can be used to make improvements and compare themselves to similar pharmacies. The tool is currently undergoing beta testing in 40 pharmacies and will be available on the ISMP Web site. Conclusion Community pharmacists remain an essential component of the medication-use process in the ambulatory setting. Each day pharmacists avoid errors of omission and commission during the drug utilization review. By communicating with the patient and providing expanded services, pharmacists can detect patient-specific drug-related problems to reduce the risk of medication-related morbidity and mortality. Community pharmacies currently struggle with balancing the increased prescription volume and staffing shortages with their desire to provide comprehensive pharmaceutical care. The increased use of technology and work-flow improvements and compensation for cognitive services can increase the provision of pharmaceutical care to ambulatory patients. Although obstacles to providing pharmaceutical care in the community setting exist, pharmacists are demonstrating the ability to overcome those obstacles to improve the medication-use process. Tables Drug-Related Problems[6-8] Unnecessary drug therapy (drug without indication) Untreated indication (indication without drug) Improper drug selection Subtherapeutic dosage Overdosage Adverse drug reaction Drug interaction Failure to receive drug (inappropriate compliance) Steps to Provide Pharmaceutical Care[9] 1. Establish and maintain professional relationships 2. Collect, organize, record, and maintain patient-specific information 3. Evaluate information to identify, prevent, and resolve drug-related problems 4. Develop drug-therapy plan mutually with the patient 5. Implement drug-therapy plan and ensure that the patient has the supplies, information, and knowledge necessary to carry out the plan 6. Review, monitor, and modify the drug-therapy plan References 1. Manasse HR Jr. Medication use in an imperfect world, I: drug misadventuring as an issue of public policy. Am J Hosp Pharm. 1989;46:1093-1097. 2. Johnson JA, Bootman JL. Drug-related morbidity and mortality: a cost-of-illness model. Arch Intern Med. 1995;155:1949-1956. 3. Ernst FR, Grizzle AJ. Drug-related morbidity and mortality: updating the cost-of-illness model. J Am Pharm Assoc. 2001;41:192-199. 4. Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, eds. Institute of Medicine Report: To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1999. Available at http://bob.nap.edu/html/to err is human/ 5. Hepler CD, Strand LM. Opportunities and responsibilities in pharmaceutical care. Am J Hosp Pharm. 1990;47:533-543. 6. Strand LM, Morley PC, Cipolle RJ, et al. Drug-related problems: their structure and function. DICP. 1990;24:1093-1097. 7. Cipolle RJ, Strand LM, Morley PC. Pharmaceutical Care Practice. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1998. 8. Rovers JP, Currie JD, Hagel HP, McDonough RP, Sobotka JL. A Practical Guide to Pharmaceutical Care. Washington, DC: American Pharmaceutical Association; 1998. 9. American Pharmaceutical Association. Principles of Practice for Pharmaceutical Care. Available at: http://www.aphanet.org/pharmcare/prinprac.html 10. Schumock GT, Meek PD, Ploetz PA, et al. Economic evaluations of clinical pharmacy services -- 1988-1995. The Publications Committee of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Pharmacotherapy. 1996;16:1188-1208. 11. Rupp MT, Schondelmeyer SW, Wilson T, Krause JE. Documenting prescribing errors and pharmacist interventions in community pharmacy practice. Am Pharm. 1988;NS28:574-580. 12. Rupp MT, DeYoung M, Schondelmeyer SW. Prescribing problems and pharmacist interventions in community practice. Med Care. 1992;30:926-940. 13. Rupp MT. Evaluation of prescribing errors and pharmacist interventions in community practice: an estimate of 'value added.' Am Pharm. 1988;NS28:766-770. 14. Rupp MT. Value of community pharmacists' interventions to correct prescribing errors. Ann Pharmacother. 1992;26:1580-1584. 15. Dobie RL, Rascati KL. Documenting the value of pharmacist interventions. Am Pharm. 1994;NS34:50-54. 16. Currie JD, Chrischilles EA, Kuehl AK, Buser RA. Effect of a training program on community pharmacists' detection of and intervention in drug-related problems. J Am Pharm Assoc. 1997;NS37:182-191. 17. HMOs adopt Wisconsin Medicaid pilot project for commercial enrollees. Payment Strat Pharmaceut Care. 1998;3:1,2,5-8. 18. Medicaid to pay Mississippi pharmacists for disease management. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 1998;55:1238-1239. 19. Pharmacists tackle outreach issued in Medicaid-based reimbursement demonstration program. Payment Strat Pharmaceut Care. 1998;3:1-3. 20. Cohen MR. Understanding medication errors. Platform presentation of the American Pharmaceutical Association 148th Annual Meeting; March 16-20, 2001; San Francisco, California. Jennifer Cerulli, PharmD, BCPS, is Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Albany College of Pharmacy, Albany, New York. E-mail: cerullij@acp.edu. Drugstore Prescription Errors Lead to Illnesses, Deaths, & Lawsuits (For other articles on pharmacy errors go to our Misfilled Prescriptions Page.) Can you trust the pharmacy that fills your prescriptions? Maybe not. A number of cases from many states have shown that what the label says may not be what the container holds. Drugstore Prescription Errors, frequently called "misfills", are becoming more common for a number of reasons. As a result, injuries, illness, and death have been caused by the taking of harmful medication. When a "misfill" occurs there are two related consequences: one is that the patient does not take the correct medication needed to treat an illness or condition; the second is that the patient takes a medication that was not prescribed and is likely to be dangerous. Sadly, permanent injury or death is sometimes the result. In Florida, because of the huge elderly population, the pharmacy business is booming with new drugstores opening virtually every week on a new corner. This increase in prescription-filling puts stress upon the filling process. Just the increasing volume of prescriptions being filled at each drugstore raises the likelihood of a "misfill" occurring. In one excellent article in the Bangor Daily News there is a litany of misfilled prescriptions that should make you triple check every pill or tablet. Excerpts from the article follow: Bangor, ME - June 26, 1999 - Dennis Pinkham is no couch potato. According to his wife, Janet, when he finishes work at the construction company the couple owns in Kenduskeag, he busies himself with projects around their home. So in the summer of 1995, when night after night he walked through the door and collapsed on the sofa, often nauseated, she was worried. Could his prescription for Zocor, a cholesterol-lowering drug, somehow be making him ill, they wondered as days of malaise turned into weeks. Not likely, it seemed, as he had been taking the medication for some time, recently refilling the prescription. But with suspicions raised, Janet Pinkham took the pills back to the Rite Aid pharmacy on Broadway in Bangor. It was then she discovered that her husband had been given the wrong drug and for weeks had been taking Zestril, a drug that controls high blood pressure. To make matters worse, Dennis Pinkham was already taking a medication to lower his blood pressure. The Pinkhams likely would have let the matter drop -- considering it a rare mistake -- had they not gone to the same pharmacy two months later to refill the Zocor. "I couldn't believe it!" said Janet Pinkham. "They gave him the same wrong prescription again." That's when the couple filed a complaint with the state's Board of Commissioners of the Profession of Pharmacy, the group responsible for policing pharmacists. While this is an especially egregious example of a misfilled prescription, such mistakes have been anything but rare in Maine this decade. In June 1992 Sue Ellen Gerrish refilled a prescription for Premarin, an estrogen replacement, at Brooks Pharmacy in Rockland. After experiencing intense itching, she returned the medication to the pharmacy, where she learned they had doubled the prescribed dose. In October 1996, Bonnie Smart of Hartland had a prescription filled at Rite Aid in Newport for desipramine, used for treating depression. After taking the drug for two days, she was almost immobilized with fatigue. Returning to the pharmacy, she was told she had been given an anti-psychotic drug by mistake. In September 1997, Sally Dobres refilled a prescription at Wal- Mart in Augusta for 20-milligram tablets of Prozac, an anti- depression medication. More than a month later, Dobres, whose symptoms of depression and anxiety had increased, discovered that the pharmacist had given her 20-milligram doses of Prilosec, an ulcer medication. In February of this year, a Knox County jury awarded Antoinette Walter $550,000 in damages as a result of a misfilled prescription she was given by Wal-Mart in Rockland in 1997. Walter, who had cancer, was prescribed Lukeran but mistakenly given Alkeran, a stronger, more volatile version of the drug. She suffered serious internal bleeding, nausea, vomiting, rashes and bruising. Wal-Mart has appealed the case. The pharmacy board, which licenses pharmacists and investigates citizen complaints, has received about 75 complaints of misfilled prescriptions in the 1990s. Most of the complaints were resolved by the board warning, reprimanding or fining pharmacists anywhere from $50 to $750. More than a dozen lawsuits alleging injury due to misfills also have been filed in Maine courts since 1994 against four national drug retail chains doing business in the state. Most mistakes, however, simply go unreported, according to research studies. But it is the state's largest chain-owned drugstore, Rite Aid, that is involved in the greatest number of misfill complaints -- an amount disproportionately higher than its competitors based on its share of business in the state. Since the beginning of 1994, 46 complaints about misfilled prescriptions have been filed with the pharmacy board, 40 of which were verified. Out of those 40, 25 were against Rite Aid pharmacists, or almost 63 percent. In addition, Rite Aid has been sued eight times in state and federal court for prescription errors since 1994, while the other five largest national drug chain stores in Maine -- Brooks, Shop 'n Save, Wal-Mart, Osco Drug and CVS -- have faced a combined total of five suits during the same period. A nationwide shortage of pharmacists -- especially acute in Maine -- has created heavy workloads. Relatively low unemployment has made it difficult to hire and retain pharmacy technicians, who regularly fill routine prescriptions. Moreover, the market for new prescription drugs has mushroomed, adding to the workload in all pharmacies. Theresa Bonsey of Hermon has been a pharmacist since 1981, working both in institutional settings, such as Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, and in retail stores, such as Brooks Drug and Shop 'n Save. She has been a pharmacist at Eastern Maine Medical Center's inpatient pharmacy for almost three years. One of only a few pharmacists willing to be quoted for this article, Bonsey vows she will never go back to the pressure-cooker atmosphere of retail pharmacy. "Retail pharmacists are paid more, but there is more expected out of them," Bonsey said. That can mean working 12 hours without getting time to eat or use a bathroom, dealing with a queue of demanding customers and spending hours on the phone with insurance companies. "If you don't get a lull, where you can regroup and eat something...clearly you're not fresh and clearly you're not going to make good decisions -- you're going to miss things." Managed care has steadily cut into pharmacy profit margins by paying flat reimbursement fees per prescription rather than basing payment on a percentage of the prescription charge. Hence, there is pressure to "get the numbers up" in retail pharmacies because a profit is only possible with volume, Bonsey said. In a 1998 complaint involving a Rite Aid store in Yarmouth, the pharmacist, Michael Butts, admitted that he had made a dispensing error and apologized. In a letter to the board he wrote: "I have rectified the situation that affected my professional performance by selecting not to be a Rite Aid employee." "Working for Rite Aid was the worst experience of my professional career. The district managers continued to cut the pharmacy technician hours to levels that were unacceptable. I would work for 12 to 14 hours with little or no help without the privilege of eating or going to the bathroom. "I am very vocal about Rite Aid's treatment of employees and {its} disrespect for the pharmacy profession." In another case from 1996, Harold Litchfield went to a Portland Rite Aid and received a prescription for haloperidol, an anti- psychotic medication, instead of furosemide, which is used for high blood pressure and other conditions. According to Litchfield's complaint, he became "deathly ill." In responding to the complaint, Stephen Pelletier, the pharmacist in charge, wrote that on the day he made the mistake he had worked from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. -- 12 1/2 hours -- and filled 192 prescriptions. Pelletier attributed the mistake to long hours with little help. "On the day I filled the 192 prescriptions it is highly likely that a mistake could be made," Pelletier wrote. "I don't believe any pharmacist and even laypersons with some knowledge of the routine of daily pharmacy practice ... would not agree with me that the qualified {pharmacy} technician time in this case was far from acceptable." Rite Aid allowed no more than 30 hours of pharmacy technician time per week for this pharmacy, Pelletier wrote. The technician had worked six hours on the day the error was made, only half as much as Pelletier. Pelletier was reprimanded by the board. In a 1996 misfill case at a Bucksport Rite Aid, Verle Henry received a refill prescription for Dilantin, used to treat irregular heartbeat, epilepsy and other conditions. Instead of getting his usual 100-milligram dose, he received 30-milligram capsules. Henry's wife, Mary, wrote in the pharmacy board complaint that her husband came into the house one day feeling faint, ready to pass out. Upon closer investigation, she found the prescription error. In his written response to the Henrys' complaint, the pharmacist, Harold Logan, who was subsequently censured and fined $100 by the board, suggested that "the tremendous amount of stress and pressure and constant interruptions that we pharmacists are constantly exposed to" contributed to the error. "It was also at this time that I got two new girls as techs," Logan wrote. "They didn't have any experience or training. They were expected to receive this under fire. "It is becoming more and more difficult to fill prescriptions with the demands of ... an employer that has to cut corners in order to continue to make a profit." In responding to a misfill complaint in 1998, Paul Charltray, a pharmacist at Rite Aid in Falmouth, wrote that the error was "most likely due to lack of help, lack of qualified help, volume, constant distraction of two phone lines and company programs piled on top." He said he did not believe anything would be done to improve conditions at the pharmacy and notified the board that he had left Rite Aid and taken a job at an independent pharmacy. It's hard to know how many misfills are found by customers but never reported to the pharmacy board. In October 1996, a jury in York, S.C., awarded $16 million to the parents of 7-year-old who suffered brain damage as the result of a misfill by a Rite Aid pharmacist in 1995. Instead of receiving a prescription for Ritalin, which controls hyperactivity, Gabrielle Hundley got Glynase, a drug given to diabetics to reduce sugar levels in the blood. Gabrielle was left mildly retarded as a result. A circuit judge subsequently refused to grant Rite Aid's request for a new trial or a reduction of the $16 million award. The company has appealed the case to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Days after the jury award in October, Rite Aid announced that it was selling more than 200 of its stores in North Carolina and South Carolina. In turn, the company bought a string of pharmacy outlets on the West Coast called Thrifty PayLess. According to consent orders between Rite Aid and pharmacy boards in Oregon and Washington, the new ownership led to misfill problems. Don Williams, director of the Washington Pharmacy Board, said the board noticed in the latter half of 1998 that it was receiving many more complaints about the 145 Thrifty PayLess stores under Rite Aid ownership than it had under the previous ownership. In 1996 the board received 32 complaints about the chain. In 1998 the number increased to 80, mostly concerning misfilled and mislabeled prescriptions. In February, the Washington Pharmacy Board reached an agreement with Rite Aid in which the company paid $10,000 in penalties and $40,000 to the Washington State Department of Health to be used for health education. As part of the consent agreement, Rite Aid, which admitted no wrongdoing, is required to review its written policies, procedures and personnel training practices. The company is required to report that information to the board. "The reason we issued discipline to the corporation in this matter was that there seemed to be an organizational problem," said Williams, referring to the boom in complaints under Rite Aid ownership. He said it is unusual for any state pharmacy board to take action against corporate owners because boards usually limit oversight to individual pharmacists. Rite Aid ran into similar problems with its Thrifty PayLess stores in Oregon at about the same time. The Oregon Board of Pharmacy in 1998 also noticed an increase in citizen complaints about the drugstores, many concerning misfills. "It might be the case that a single pharmacist makes a mistake, but many pharmacists from the same company making mistakes -- that needs to be looked at closer," said Gary Schnable, the pharmacy board compliance director. As a result of the board's investigation, Rite Aid, which admitted no wrongdoing, entered into a consent agreement with the board in March. It agreed to pay $19,000 in penalties, reimburse the board $20,500 for expenses and give $20,000 to the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy for education. As part of the agreement's 12- point action plan to improve the performance of the drug outlets, the pharmacy board will assign all future complaints regarding Thrifty PayLess to a single board inspector. Misfill studies A study published in 1995 by American Pharmacy, a scholarly journal, found that 100 prescription orders dispensed in metropolitan areas in New Jersey, New York and Florida yielded 24 prescription errors, such as wrong drug, wrong strength, wrong quantity or wrong label. Four of those errors would have had serious ill effects if taken. The study concluded that the problem of dispensing errors required "immediate attention." Two other studies in 1995 and 1996 found that the average range of prescription errors to be 3 to 5 percent. Other studies estimate that between 0.87 percent and 1.5 percent of those misfills are potentially injurious to patients. Given that an estimated 2.8 billion prescriptions were filled in America in 1998, that means between 1 million and 2 million prescriptions had the potential to harm. There is no simple answer to why dispensing errors are made. An article in the Medical Sciences Bulletin in 1997 pointed out that some mistakes are made because too many drugs have nearly identical names. For example: Levoxine vs. Lanoxin, Eldepryl vs. enalapril, quinine vs. quinidine. Prescriptions also use drug suffixes, like SR or XL, whose presence or absence can alter the prescription. Anthony Grasha, a psychology professor at the University of Cincinnati who has conducted industry-sponsored studies on pharmacy misfills, has documented 17 factors associated with pharmacists who make prescription errors. Some of those are conflicts with a supervisor, co-workers or family members; frustration with the task of filling prescriptions; problems with the physical environment of the pharmacy; and drinking too much caffeine. But corporate management has also come under scrutiny for its part in misfills. According to a March 1996 article in the American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed a $250,000 jury verdict against a corporation based on a plaintiff's allegation that the company had insufficient controls over how prescriptions were filled at its pharmacies. The article concluded, "This case departs from precedent because it considers the possibility that a pharmacist may be caught in circumstances that predispose him or her to error (for example, inadequate support personnel, outdated technologies, poor lighting, or some deficiency in the physical layout), so that a pharmacy can be characterized as an accident waiting to happen." In particular, the correlation between pharmacy workload and dispensing errors has been of special interest -- and debate -- this decade. In 1994, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy established the Task Force to Study Pharmacists' Workload. The task force issued a request for proposals for a research project looking into workload issues. The project, however, never was funded. In a report last year, the task force wrote that there is still "little data available regarding the effect of various environmental, sensory, staffing and prescription filling and dispensing procedures. Without reliable data of this kind, NABP and the state boards of pharmacy are unable to make appropriate and valid decisions about the effects of workload systems on medication errors." Still, after reviewing existing research on misfills, the task force concluded that "workload conditions in the pharmacy are a problem that impact the public health and safety." The task force noted that a number of other factors are involved, such as lighting, temperature, physical layout, staffing, working with insurance companies and advising patients on over-the-counter medications. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy advocates that state boards establish continuous quality improvement programs (CQI), which are intended to encourage pharmacists and pharmacies to report medication errors in a way that will allow the boards to determine which factors are most likely to contribute to the problem. In February, Florida became the first state to implement CQI. Pharmacies will be required to keep a record of any reports or allegations of misfills, and a CQI committee will analyze the errors quarterly. According to John Taylor, the Florida board's executive director, CQI will allow the board to look at the system, not the individual. Workload regulation Despite the national board's advocacy of CQI, the idea of specifically regulating pharmacy workload in order to reduce misfills is alive and well. North Carolina became the first state to regulate pharmacists' hours earlier this year. Spurred on by a complaint of a misfill dispensed by a pharmacist who had worked a 16-hour shift in 1997, the North Carolina Pharmacy Board's proposed a rule that would prohibit pharmacists from working more than 12 continuous hours per day. Pharmacists who work more than six continuous hours would get a 30- minute meal break and a 15-minute break. "Twelve hours is a common shift," said David Work, executive director of the North Carolina pharmacy board. "But 16 hours is over the top." However, the Rules Review Commission, an independent agency in North Carolina, rejected the workplace regulations, saying that the pharmacy board has no authority to set such rules. The pharmacy board is seeking a judicial review of the commission's decision, Work said. In late 1995, 27 Maine pharmacists -- 10 from Rite Aid -- submitted a petition to the Maine Board of Pharmacy asking that the board establish a regulation limiting pharmacists to a maximum 12- hour workday. The board voted to deny the petition, noting the "potentially controversial nature and far-reaching effect of such a rule." Theresa Bonsey, who was working at Shop 'n Save at the time, signed the petition. "I think they should allow at least two 20- minute breaks away from the pharmacy area for a pharmacist in a 12- hour day -- minimum," she said. "If you've gone without even a 20- minute chance to regroup, go to the bathroom and eat something, how can you possibly be functioning at a level where you're able to think and analyze and approach someone in a good way?" Despite its rejection of the petition, the board has remained interested in the subject of workload. Catherine Longley, commissioner of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, which oversees the pharmacy board, formed a seven-member review group last fall to consider changes to the Maine Pharmacy Act during this year's legislative session. One of the issues up for discussion was pharmacy workload. In an August letter to the legislative analyst working with the review group, the state pharmacy board said it "feels there is a need to regulate certain aspects of pharmacy staffing within Maine pharmacies to assure the availability of adequate trained personnel to meet the specific volume needs of each outlet." Christina Valar Breen, who is Longley's assistant and acted as her designee on the task force, said there are many pharmacists who see workload as a problem and would like to see something done. But the workload issue was eventually dropped because it was too contentious and threatened to scuttle a draft bill by the review group, she said. "The discussion started turning into a labor-relations debate," said Valar Breen. "The task force couldn't see how we could come up with legislative action to address it." In general, pharmacy companies oppose such restrictions. "Workload, in and of itself, is not a significant factor in misfills," said Carr for Rite Aid. A bill passed this legislative session authorizes a second phase of the task force. Anne Head, director of the Office of Licensing and Registration, which administers the pharmacy board, said the task force will likely look at workplace regulation by the pharmacy board or by new law. "It's important to consider because the only purpose of this board is to protect the public from unsafe pharmacy practices," Head said. "It seems to me that the public protection mission of this board is broad enough to include the change in pharmacy practice that we're seeing across the country, where corporate entities tend to dominate the retail pharmacy service." Bernard "Bill" Miller, who owns and operates Miller Drug in Bangor, the state's largest independent drugstore, acknowledges that the pharmacist shortage has caused some problems in adequate staffing for the state's pharmacies, but he said he does not believe regulation of store workload would work. "It can't be a numbers game -- it has to be common sense," he said, noting that the time it takes to prepare any given prescription varies widely. "We don't need to be legislated." Miller said it is a pharmacist's professional obligation not to tolerate working conditions that promote mistakes. "You have a professional responsibility to quit if the chain doesn't let you do the work professionally," he said. Main Links: Our Firm | Your Claim | Search | Contact Us | All FAQs | Home Claim Types: On the Job | Defective Products | Medical Malpractice | Slip & Fall | Automobile Accident | Nursing Home Abuse | Unfair Insurance Practices | HMOs & Your Rights Injury Types: Serious Injury | Spinal Cord Injury | Brain Injury | TMJ Dysfunction | Loss of Sight | Wrongful Death All contents copyright 2004 Perenich, Carroll, Perenich, Avril, Caulfield & Noyes, P.A. 1875 North Belcher Road Suite 201 Clearwater, FL 33765 Phone: (727) 796-8282 Fax: (727) 797-3667 Email: alanning@usalaw.com Proud sponsor of InjuryBoard.com. Medication Errors Mistakes in the use of a medication are one of the best tracked types of medical error. Errors with medication can occur in hospitals, at the pharmacy, in the doctor's office, and even due to the patient. Problems can include adverse reactions and interactions with other medications, and also basic administrative errors such as patients being given the wrong medication or wrong dosage. A less studied aspect of mistakes involving medications is the misdiagnosis of a disease when the real cause is a side effect of a medication; see medications underlying disease. Medication errors: An Institute of Medical report 1 gives detailed information about deaths and adverse events due to errors in medication. The report estimates that 7,391 deaths resulted from medication errors in 1993. The IOM report cites one study finding that about 2% of hospital admissions experienced a preventable adverse drug event, although the majority are not fatal. Medication error was cited as the cause of death for 1 in 131 outpatient deaths and 1 in 854 inpatient deaths. Children and infants are particularly at risk of medication errors mainly due to incorrect dosage, because of the need to modify dosages based on age and weight. The dosage modification may be either overlooked or miscalculated. Various studies have shown high error rates in doctors and nurses in calculating weight-dependent dosages in infants and especially neonates. Prescription errors: The dispensing of prescription medications at the pharmacy can have various errors. The wrong medication can be given, particularly when medications are named or packaged similarly. There are particular drugs that are known to have problems because their names are very similar. The pharmacy can also give out the wrong dosage of the drug in some cases. Most studies of medication errors only analyzed hospital medication usage, and there is a large volume of medications prescribed in doctor's offices and dispensed by pharmacies. There were nearly 2.5 billion prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies in 1998 in the USA compared to an estimated 3.75 billion drug administrations in hospitals. Errors in prescription and dispensing are known but difficult to quantify. For example, the IOM report cites an Australian study for 1988-1996 finding that 2.4 to 3.6 percent of hospital admissions were due to medication events, of which 32 to 69% were preventable. The medications causing most problems were cytotoxics, cardiovascular drugs, antihypertensives, anticoagulants, and NSAIDs. Causes of medication errors: People with kidney conditions, liver conditions, or known drug allergies were at the greatest risk. The IOM report cites the following factors as causal in medication errors: * failure to alter a medication or dosage due to patient's reduced kidney or liver function (13.9%), * known allergy to same medication class (12.1%); * using the wrong drug name, dosage form, or abbreviation (11.4%), * incorrect dosage calculations (11.1%); and * atypical or unusual and critical dosage frequency considerations (10.8%). Data indicates the greatest risk in prescription errors from the doctor rather than the pharmacist with estimates as follows: * prescribing errors (68%), * administration errors (25%) and * supply errors (7%). Adverse drug reactions: An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is not necessarily a medical error although it can be. An adverse drug reaction occurs when a patient suffers a reaction, side effect, or other injury from a medication. This can occur without an error, such as when a patient has an allergy to a medicine, but has never shown any signs or risk factors for this allergy previously. On the other hand, an error would occur if a previous allergy was known but the medication was still given to the patient. Adverse drug reactions are quite common. Lazarou et al. 1998 (JAMA) Lazarou 2 estimated that 6.7% of hospitalizations resulted in an adverse drug reaction, and 0.32% of cases were fatal. This extrapolates to about 2,216,000 cases annually in hospitalized patients and 106,000 deaths. Holland et al (1997) 3 estimates as many as 1 million patients are injured while in the hospital and approximately 180,000 die as a result. This leads to a cost estimate of more than $136 billion a year. The article cites the list of medications most frequently causing adverse reactions in order of incidence: * antibiotics, * chemotherapy, * anticoagulants, * cardiovascular agents, * anticonvulsants, * antidiabetic agents, * antihypertensives, * analgesics, * antiasthma agents, * sedative-hypnotic agents, * antidepressants, * antipsychotic agents, and * antiulcer agents. Footnotes: 1. Institute of Medicine (IOM), "To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System", 2000,online. 2. Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. JAMA 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-5, html, PDF 3. EILEEN G. HOLLAND, PHARM.D., and FRANK V. DEGRUY, M.D. Drug-Induced Disorders, Volume 15, No. 7, November 1, 1997, html Focus On Errors May Bring Changes to the Pharmacy Pharmacists urged to take the lead in medication safety from Pharmacy Today Alex Otto With the national spotlight focused on medical errors, pharmacist Michael R. Cohen, President of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), has no doubt that major changes are coming to the practice of pharmacy. Politicians and health care administrators are scrambling to implement the recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its groundbreaking study, To Err Is Human. After concluding that medical mistakes kill as many as 98,000 hospitalized patients each year, the study's authors suggested major system-wide changes to reduce medical errors. Many of these changes would affect how pharmacists handle drugs. Some recommendations could also, if implemented, make it more likely for pharmacists to be sued for mistakes made on the job. Medication errors, the report argued, must be addressed as part of the overall strategy. The Institute estimated that approximately 7,000 patients both in and out of the hospital are killed annually by mistakes made in drug administration, but the actual figure may be much higher. Announcing his intention to develop a strategy to reduce medical errors, President Clinton said, "If there is one thing we have learned, it's that effectively managing the prescribing and dispensing of drugs is one of the best ways we can improve quality and hold down cost." The focus on medication safety is likely to remain for some time. The General Accounting Office is expected to release its own report on drug safety in the first quarter of this year. A series of congressional hearings to address medical errors is planned in the coming months, as well, and a White House task force will present Clinton with an action plan based on the IOM report in February. Attention from Regulators The health care community has heard scores of concrete, practical tips on how drugs could be handled more safely in the pharmacy since the IOM report was released in November. Many come from Cohen's book, Medication Errors, which is published by APhA. Cohen presented a copy of his book to Clinton when the two met at the White House in December. Cohen's ideas also formed the backbone of an American Hospital Association quality advisory recently mailed to hospital pharmacists. Regulatory bodies have been watching these developments closely, Cohen said, raising the possibility that compliance with at least some suggestions may eventually be required for pharmacy licensing, accreditation, and reimbursement. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, in fact, recently recommended special precautions when handling and administering heparin, insulin, and injectable potassium chloride, among other medications. Cohen believes pharmacists should seize the initiative and actively embrace the role of health safety officer by approaching physicians and administrators to implement safer pharmacy practices. "These are things pharmacists have been writing about and wanting to do for years," Cohen explained, "but we have met with roadblocks from physicians and managers trying to save time and keep costs down. Now finally everyone has latched onto them and realized their importance. It's time to be proactive." APhA President J. Lyle Bootman, PhD, concurred. "We have never been in such an opportune time as now to provide the leadership to solving this problem, the silent disease of America," he said. Mandatory Reporting The IOM report called pharmacists "an essential resource" for drug information."There is no question that this will increase the acceptance of pharmaceutical care," Cohen said. The recognition also makes it more likely that a Medicare drug benefit will include compensation for pharmacists' cognitive services. In fact, Clinton plans to add coverage for medication safety measures when he reintroduces his benefit proposal later this year. But the report has a potential downside for pharmacists, as well. IOM has recommended mandatory, public reporting to state governments of medical errors that cause serious injury or death. In the case of a major error, the identity of both the pharmacy and pharmacist would be available. Pharmacists could also be held responsible for detecting incorrect dosages and other errors made by prescribing physicians, Bootman noted. A jury in Odessa, Tex. recently found a pharmacist, pharmacy, and physician liable after a handwriting mix-up on a prescription slip resulted in the death of a patient. Reporting of less serious injuries would be voluntary and confidential under the IOM system, which could be modeled after FDA's MedWatch or the U.S. Pharmacopeia's Medication Error Reporting Program. Both systems analyze reports and alert practitioners and industry to emerging problems. States would present aggregate data from their reporting systems to the Center for Patient Safety (CPS), a new federal body proposed by IOM to promote safe medical practices. The Center would use the information to identify safety issues that require more intensive analysis and broad response. Court Battles "Mandatory reporting would increase the likelihood of pharmacists winding up in court," Bootman said. "Lawyers have been paying very close attention, and they have little tolerance for error."As a result, malpractice insurance could skyrocket and automation could become more common. "There is a perception that robots cause fewer errors," Bootman explained. Traditionally, APhA has supported voluntary reporting with subsequent confidential analysis of data. Many questions remain to be answered about mandatory reporting. For instance, would a preexisting standard need to be violated to trigger a report? Who would decide what injuries were severe enough to be reported? How would reporting work in the ambulatory setting? It is also unclear what state agency would receive the reports and how the information would be made available to the public. Despite these and similar unresolved questions, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has announced a bill that would enact the IOM recommendations, including the reporting provisions. Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) may soon introduce similar legislation. "Once you know about a problem, you're under a moral obligation to deal with it," Clinton said when asked about liability in December. "Whatever the problems are, they are not as important as saving the thousands and thousands of lives that obviously are there to be saved, now." Pharmacy Today 6(1), 2000. 2000 American Pharmaceutical Association OP Pharmacy Guide to Practice OFFICE OF THE PROFESSIONS NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT The University of the State of New York THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT Office of the Professions Division of Professional Licensing Services 89 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12234-1000 www.op.nysed.gov January 2004 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Regents of the University ROBERT M. BENNETT, Chancellor, B.A., M.S. ..............................................................Tonawanda MERRYL H. TISCH, Vice Chancellor, B.A., M.A., Ed.D. ................................................New York SAUL B. COHEN, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. ..................................................................................New Rochelle JAMES C. DAWSON, A.A., B.A., M.S., Ph.D. ..................................................................Peru ANTHONY S. BOTTAR, B.A., J.D. ..................................................................................Syracuse GERALDINE D. CHAPEY, B.A., M.A., Ed.D. ..................................................................Belle Harbor ARNOLD B. GARDNER, B.A., LL.B. ..............................................................................Buffalo HARRY PHILLIPS, 3rd, B.A., M.S.F.S. ............................................................................Hartsdale JOSEPH E. BOWMAN, JR., B.A., M.L.S., M.A., M.Ed., Ed.D..........................................Albany JAMES R. TALLON, JR., B.A., M.A. ................................................................................Binghamton MILTON L. COFIELD, B.S., M.B.A., Ph.D. ....................................................................Rochester ROGER B. TILLES, B.A., J.D. ............................................................................................Great Neck KAREN BROOKS HOPKINS, B.A., M.F.A. ......................................................................Brooklyn CHARLES R. BENDIT, B.A. ..............................................................................................Manhattan BETTY A. ROSA, B.A., M.S. in Ed., M.S. in Ed., M.Ed., Ed.D ........................................Bronx LESTER W. YOUNG, JR., B.S., M.S., Ed. D ......................................................................Oakland Gardens President of The University and Commissioner of Education RICHARD P. MILLS Associate Commissioner for the Professions FRANK MUÑOZ Director of the Division of Professional Licensing Services TONY LOFRUMENTO Executive Secretary for the State Board for Pharmacy LAWRENCE H. MOKHIBER The State Education Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation in its educational programs, services and activities. Portions of this publication can be made available in a variety of formats, including braille, large print or audio tape, upon request. Inquiries concerning this policy of nondiscrimination should be directed to the Department's Office for Diversity, Ethics, and Access, Room 530, Education Building, Albany, NY 12234. Requests for additional copies of this publication may be made by contacting the Publications Sales Desk, Room 309, Education Building, Albany, NY 12234. MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF PHARMACY New York is unique in placing its system of professional governance under the Board of Regents, a citizen body. Boards of professionals and public members advise the Regents and the Education Department on all aspects of professional education, licensing, practice, and discipline. NAME Mark B. Arrington, Highland Mills, NY John B. Carlo, Fairport, NY John L. Croce, Delmar, NY Madelyne DiMaria, Vestal, NY Patricia Donato, Schenectady, NY Michael Duteau, Baldwinsville, NY David B. Flashover, Albany, NY Fernando A. Gonzalez, Brooklyn, NY Susan Ksiazek, Buffalo, NY Robert A. Mangione, Lynbrook, NY Daniel Molino, Briarcliff Manor, NY *Peggy Murrain, Great Neck, NY John Navarra, Hauppauge, NY *Carolyn Reres, Franklin Square, NY Hao Jimmy Tran, Manhasset Hills, NY Daniel J. Villa, Three Mile Bay, NY Richard Zeitoun, Larchmont, NY *Public Member Current listings of board members are available on the Office of the Professions’ home page at www.op.nysed.gov. TERM 04/01/05 – 03/31/10 (2nd) 04/01/05 – 03/31/10 (2nd) 02/13/07 – 01/31/12 (1st) 08/01/04 – 07/31/09 (1st) 06/30/02 – 06/30/07 (2nd) 11/01/05 – 10/31/10 (1st) 06/30/02 – 06/30/07 (2nd) 02/13/07 – 01/31/12 (1st) 12/01/03 – 11/30/08 (2nd) 12/01/03 – 11/30/08 (2nd) 11/01/05 – 10/31/10 (1st) 12/01/03 – 11/30/08 (2nd) 10/01/06 – 09/30/11 (2nd) 12/01/03 – 11/30/08 (2nd) 10/01/06– 09/30/11 (2nd) 10/01/06– 09/30/11 (2nd) 10/01/06– 09/30/11 (2nd) TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome …………….…………………………………………………………………………… 1 Office of the Professions Strategic Plan ……………………………………………....………...3 Who to Contact for Answers ………………………………………………………………….... 4 The Profession of Pharmacy …………………………………………………………………… 8 Authorized Prescribers …………………………………………………………………………. 9 Required Reporting ………………………………………………………………………..….. 10 Discontinuation Process for Pharmacies, Manufacturers, Repackers and Wholesalers …..11 General Information Sources ………………………………………………………………….12 Questions And Answers For Pharmacists And Pharmacies ……………………………….. 14 Continuing Education – Questions and Answers for Pharmacists ……………………....… 20 Electronic Transmittal of Prescriptions – Questions and Answers ………………………... 28 Professional Misconduct ………………………………………………………………………. 34 Reporting Professional Misconduct or Unlicensed Practice ……....………………………... 34 Professional Assistance Program ……………………………………………………………...36 Page Reference to Laws, Rules and Regulations ……….…………………………………….38 Laws and Regulations Specific to Pharmacy …………………………………………………42 Laws Regarding Continuing Education ……………………………………….…………….. 57 Laws, Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Professions ………………………………... 80 Address/Name Change Form …………………………………………………………………. End FOR FUTURE REFERENCE IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY that impacts the licensed professions, the Office of the Professions will provide important information, specific to the situation, through our Web site (www.op.nysed.gov), our automated phone system (518-474-3817), and/or our regional offices. This information will include emergency provisions for professional practice as well as updates on scheduled events and services (licensing examinations, professional discipline proceedings, examination reviews, etc.). WELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER Dear New Professional Licensee: On behalf of the New York State Board of Regents and the Education Department, I welcome you into the community of New York State licensed professionals. You have worked hard to earn your new professional license. Congratulations on your achievement! In New York State, through the Education Department's Office of the Professions, the Board of Regents licenses and regulates 44 professions and 31 related certificate areas, including: • • • Pharmacists, occupational therapists, nurses, certified social workers and other professionals who safeguard our health and well being. Accountants and other professionals who ensure the integrity of our business affairs. Architects, engineers, and other professionals who keep our roads and buildings safe. Since 1891, New York’s Board of Regents has ensured public protection, quality of professional preparation, and fairness for all professionals. The 16 Regents, representing all regions of the State, oversee the granting of more than 32,000 new licenses each year, registration of all 670,000 professionals every 2 or 3 years, and the investigation of over 7,000 professional misconduct complaints every year. You join the community of other active professionals in New York State, more than 19,000 of whom are pharmacists. Your license carries with it certain expectations and responsibilities. It represents both your basic qualifications and your commitment to maintaining your competence and rendering quality professional services throughout your career. To support you in meeting your professional responsibilities, the Office of the Professions will help keep you up-to-date with changes in your profession through our Web site - www.op.nysed.gov - and at least one informational mailing a year. We will also respond to your questions and process your registration materials promptly. In our efforts to educate the public about their rights to professional services, we provide them with the tools to check the licensure and registration status of professionals and information about reporting professional misconduct and unlicensed practice. Our comprehensive approach will ensure that your professional license is backed by the integrity of an effective, unified system of professional regulation under the Board of Regents that has the protection of the public at its heart. Congratulations again on your new profession and best wishes for a long and satisfying career. Sincerely, Johanna Duncan-Poitier Deputy Commissioner Office of the Professions and Office of Higher Education 1 WELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Dear New Professional Licensee: On behalf of the New York State Board of Pharmacy, I would like to welcome you to the practice of the profession of pharmacy in New York State. The State Board of Pharmacy, comprised of at least eleven members, including nine licensed pharmacists and at least two public members, assist the Board of Regents and the Department in the regulation of the profession. As you begin what we hope will be a rewarding career in New York State, there are a few things we would like to tell you. In New York State, you are licensed for life unless your license is surrendered or revoked following disciplinary action by the Board of Regents. When you are practicing in New York State, however, you are required to be registered, in addition to being licensed. Your initial period of registration begins with your date of licensure, and you must register every three years thereafter. You will automatically receive new registration materials in the mail four months before your registration expires. To ensure that you receive registration materials and important practice information promptly, licensure law requires that you inform us within 30 days if your name or address changes. If you do change your name or move, please notify us by submitting the Address/Name change form contained in this Guide to Practice. You may also obtain information on name/address changes on our Web site at www.op.nysed.gov, or by phone at (518) 474-3817, ext. 410. The New York State Board of Regents, the Education Department, and the State Board of Pharmacy are committed to the protection of the public, as well as to ensuring that professional pharmacists maintain the highest standards of professional practice. To assist you, we have provided information on professional practice issues and frequently asked questions, including recommendations to help you establish sound practices. The Rules of the Board of Regents on Unprofessional Conduct, however, establish the basic requirements that you must follow in your practice. You will find these under Part 29 of the Regents Rules. If you have questions related to scope of practice, please contact the Office of the State Board of Pharmacy, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12234-1000, by phone at (518) 474-3817, ext. 130, fax at (518) 473-6995, or e-mail at pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov. The members of the State Board of Pharmacy join me in wishing you years of satisfaction in the practice of pharmacy. Sincerely, Lawrence H. Mokhiber Executive Secretary State Board of Pharmacy 2 OFFICE OF THE PROFESSIONS STRATEGIC PLAN VISION A regulatory system that promotes the highest quality of professional services for public protection. MISSION To protect the public by fostering high standards of professional licensure, practice and discipline. GOALS • The credentialing and discipline processes are fair, prompt, clear, and accurate. • Accurate information will be provided promptly in a clear and courteous manner to consumers, licensees, and the interested public. • Policies, practices, interpretations, standards, decisions, and processes for the licensed professions balance the needs and concerns of consumers and professionals, consistent with the law. • All staff are informed, share in decision making, are clear about their role, have meaningful responsibility and opportunity to contribute, and have training to develop their potential. • Partnerships are developed to promote diversity and increase awareness of careers in the licensed professions. 3 Your New York License and Registration IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR REGISTRATION TO PRACTICE IN NEW YORK STATE • Your professional license is valid for life unless revoked or surrendered; however, you must register with the State Education Department every three years to practice your profession or use your professional title in New York State. • Month-of-birth registration – Once licensed, about four months before your initial three-year registration expires, you will be sent a registration renewal application assigning you to a one-time transitional registration period. This period will end with the month prior to your date of birth between two and three years from the date of your first registration. This allows us to adjust your triennial registration cycle to coincide with the month of your date of birth and helps to ensure a speedy renewal of your registration. The registration fee for this transitional period will be prorated so that you pay only for the number of months included in the period. Thereafter, you will be registered for a three-year period beginning on the first day of your month of birth. Remember that it is your responsibility to notify us of a change of address. You can access the license verification service on the Office of the Professions' Web site - www.op.nysed.gov - to confirm your registration expiration date. For answers about… PRACTICE ISSUES OR THE RULES GOVERNING YOUR PROFESSION • Standards of Practice • Scope of Practice Contact: NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF PHARMACY: Call: Write: (518) 474-3817 ext. 130 New York State Board of Pharmacy 89 Washington Avenue Albany, New York 12234-1000 (518) 473-6995 pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov • Related areas Fax: E-mail: INACTIVE REGISTRATION • If you are not practicing your profession or using your title in New York, you may inactivate your registration at no cost. You must advise us of your decision to be inactive; otherwise, you will be expected to keep your registration current and pay all registration fees due. If you decide to resume practice in New York after inactivating your license, you must re-register your license. TO INACTIVATE YOUR REGISTRATION OR TO RENEW AN INACTIVE OR LAPSED REGISTRATION: Call: Write*: (518) 474-3817 ext. 410 Registration Unit Office of the Professions Division of Professional Licensing Services 89 Washington Avenue Albany, New York 12234-1000 (518) 474-3004 opregfee@mail.nysed.gov • Fax*: E-mail*: Licensure Status Information: www.op.nysed.gov (Click on “Online Licensure Verification”) *Be sure to include your name, profession, and license number. 4 Your New York License and Registration For answers about… CHANGING YOUR ADDRESS OR NAME IN OUR RECORDS Contact: FOR ADDRESS OR NAME CHANGES: Call: Records and Archives Unit at (518) 474-3817 ext. 380 Education Law and Commissioner's Regulations require that you notify us within 30 days of a change Write: Records and Archives Unit in your name or address. Office of the Professions You may use the form at the back of this packet to notify us of changes in your name or address or use one of the methods outlined in the box to the right. FAX: Division of Professional Licensing Services 89 Washington Avenue Albany, New York 12234-1000 (518) 486-3617 E-mail: oparchiv@mail.nysed.gov NOTE Your notification must include your name, profession, license number, social security number, date of birth, and both your old and new address and/or name. Please note: An original signature and notary certification is required for a name change; therefore, phone, fax, or e-mail notifications are not acceptable. REPLACING YOUR REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE OR YOUR LICENSE FOR AN APPLICATION TO REPLACE A LOST OR DESTROYED LICENSE: Call: (518) 474-3817 ext. 380 Records & Archives Unit Office of the Professions Division of Professional Licensing Services 89 Washington Avenue Albany, New York 12234-1000 (518) 486-3617 oparchiv@mail.nysed.gov • Your license parchment is the permanent document issued at the time of your licensure. Write: FAX: E-mail: • Your renewable registration certificate indicates Registration Unit that you are currently registered to practice under Write: Office of the Professions that license in New York State. Division of Professional Licensing Services 89 Washington Avenue Albany, New York 12234-1000 TO REPLACE A LOST OR DESTROYED REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE: An original signature of the licensee is required for replacement documents. Call: FAX: E-mail: (518) 474-3817 ext. 410 (518) 474-3004 opregfee@mail.nysed.gov 5 Your New York License and Registration For answers about… VERIFYING YOUR NEW YORK LICENSE Contact: FOR A WRITTEN VERIFICATION OR CERTIFICATION: New York issues two types of written confirmation of licensure, both of which require a written request and Send request and fee to: a fee. Determine exactly which type is needed by the Certifications and Verifications Unit party to whom the information will be sent. Office of the Professions Division of Professional Licensing Services Verification: states only whether an individual is 89 Washington Avenue licensed and currently registered. Fee: $10 Albany, New York 12234-1000 Certification: gives the basis of licensure, including professional school and licensing examination NO COST VERIFICATION OPTIONS: results. This statement will only be issued at the request of the licensee or another licensing authority. By phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 390 Fee: $20 On the Web: www.op.nysed.gov VERIFYING A PHARMACY ESTABLISHMENT NO COST VERIFICATION OPTION: REGISTRATION On the Web: www.op.nysed.gov UNLICENSED PRACTICE OR PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT TO FILE A COMPLAINT AGAINST A PROFESSIONAL LICENSED BY THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT* OR REPORT You may contact the office of the State board for SOMEONE YOU BELIEVE IS PRACTICING advice on practice issues. WITHOUT A LICENSE, CALL 1-800-442-8106 OR CONTACT AN OFFICE OF THE The Office of the Professions’ Office of Professional PROFESSIONS REGIONAL OFFICE: Discipline (OPD) • Investigates and prosecutes complaints against Bronx and Queens: (718) 794-2457 or 2458 licensed professionals; and Albany: (518) 485-9350 Long Island: (631) 425-7758 Manhattan: (212) 961-4369 Mid Hudson: (914) 934-7550 Buffalo: (716) 842-6550 Syracuse: (315) 476-5081 Rochester: (585) 241-2810 Brooklyn and Staten Island: (718) 246-3060 or 3061 • Works with other enforcement agencies in cases involving illegal (unlicensed) practice. E-mail: conduct@mail.nysed.gov *To report complaints against physicians, physician assistants, and specialist assistants see specific instructions on page 35. Information about the Office of the Professions and the licensed professions is available on our home page: www.op.nysed.gov 6 7 THE PROFESSION OF PHARMACY INTRODUCTION Pharmacy is a professional practice which includes activities necessary for providing drugs for use by patients pursuant to the orders of persons authorized by State law to prescribe drugs. The essential elements of the practice are dispensing, counseling and consultation. AUTHORIZATION TO PRACTICE PHARMACY BY PHARMACISTS AND PHARMACY INTERNS Only a licensed person may use the title “pharmacist” or, unless exempt, may legally perform or offer to perform acts which come within the scope of the statutory definition of practice (Education Law sections 6512, 6513, 6803 and 6811). A limited permit authorizing practice by a “pharmacy intern” under the immediate and personal supervision of a licensed pharmacist may be issued to advanced pharmacy students and graduates of pharmacy programs (section 6806). Health professionals practicing within the scope of their respective professions if it includes dispensing, are exempt from the licensing requirement (sections 6505 and 6807). The requirements and procedures for obtaining a pharmacist license are in Section 6805 of the Education Law and in Parts 59 and 63 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. A licensee must register with the Education Department to practice in this State. Reregistration, every three years, requires the submission of a form accompanied by the fee set in law (section 6502 of the Education Law and Part 59 of the Regulations). All licensees are required to notify the Office of the Professions of name and addresses changes. See page 6 for details. REGISTRATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS The Education Department registers pharmacies, wholesalers and manufacturers (Education Law section 6808 and part 63.6 of the Regulations). Registration by the Education Department is required of all individuals, partnerships or corporations who possess prescription drugs or prescription devices for the purpose of compounding, dispensing, retailing, wholesaling or manufacturing or who offer these materials for sale at retail or wholesale. The Department also registers establishments located in other states that ship or deliver prescription drugs into New York State. Pharmacies may be owned by unlicensed persons or corporations provided that the actual practice of pharmacy is conducted only by licensed pharmacists. A separate registration is required for each pharmacy. A licensed pharmacist must be designated formally as the “supervising pharmacist” for each pharmacy. This pharmacist is personally responsible for the conduct of the practice of pharmacy at the specified pharmacy and for insuring compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations. The owners of manufacturing and wholesaling establishments are not required to be pharmacists. The supervisors of these establishments must meet requirements stated in the regulations. If you have any questions related to registration of establishments please contact the New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, State Board of Pharmacy at (518) 474-3817 ext. 130, fax (518) 473-6995 or e-mail at pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov. 8 AUTHORIZED PRESCRIBERS Individuals licensed and currently registered in the following professions are authorized to issue prescriptions in New York State: • • • • • • • • Dentists Midwives Nurse Practitioners Optometrists Physicians Physician Assistants Podiatrists Veterinarians If you have questions regarding the particular aspects or scope of prescribing for these professionals please contact the appropriate professional board office. The mailing address for all offices listed below is: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12234-1000. DENTISTRY: Milton Lawney, Executive Secretary, New York State Board for Dentistry Phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 550; Fax: (518) 473-6995; E-mail: dentbd@mail.nysed.gov MEDICINE AND VETERINARY MEDICINE: Thomas Monahan, Executive Secretary, New York State Boards for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 560; Fax: (518) 486-4846; E-mail: medbd@mail.nysed.gov and vetmedbd@mail.nysed.gov NURSING: Barbara Zittel, Executive Secretary, New York State Board for Nursing Phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 120; Fax: (518) 474-3706; E-mail: nursebd@mail.nysed.gov OPTOMETRY: Milton Lawney, Executive Secretary, New York State Board for Optometry Phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 591 ; Fax: (518) 474-6995; E-mail: optombd@mail.nysed.gov PHARMACY AND MIDWIFERY: Lawrence Mokhiber, Executive Secretary, New York State Boards of Pharmacy and Midwifery Phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 130; Fax: (518) 473-6995; E-mail: pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov and midwifbd@mail.nysed.gov. PODIATRY: Claudia Alexander, Executive Secretary, New York State Board for Podiatry Phone: (518) 474-3817 ext. 180; Fax: (518) 402-5944; E-mail: podbd@mail.nysed.gov 9 REQUIRED REPORTING Under the direction of the State Education Department, the Office of the State Board of Pharmacy processes, issues, and maintains registrations for all pharmacies, manufacturers, repackers, and wholesalers of drugs that are located in New York State or that ship or deliver prescription drugs into New York State from other jurisdictions. Holders of registrations, as well as individuals or entities seeking to transfer or otherwise modify a registration, must meet certain reporting requirements. Examples of instances in which you would be required to notify the Education Department’s Office of the State Board of Pharmacy are provided below. To notify the State Board of Pharmacy, call (518) 474-3817 ext. 130, fax (518) 473-6995, e-mail pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov or write to: State Board of Pharmacy Office of the Professions State Education Department 89 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12234 Transfer of Ownership – A new registration must be issued by the State Board of Pharmacy when an establishment and its assets are transferred from one individual, partnership, or corporation to another. To transfer ownership, an application for the new registration should be received by the State Board of Pharmacy at least six weeks prior to the proposed date of transfer. An inspection of the premises by the Office of the Professions is required. Applications are available by contacting the State Board Office. Change in Corporate Officers and/or Principal Stockholders – The State Board of Pharmacy must be notified within 30 days of any change in officers and/or principal stockholders. For this requirement, a principal stockholder is any person holding ten percent or more of the stock of the corporation. Fire, Flood or Disaster – The State Board of Pharmacy must be notified within 48 hours of damage caused by fire, flood, or disaster. Change in Supervision – The State Board of Pharmacy must be notified within seven days of any change in the supervisor of a registered establishment. Change of Location – An application must be filed with the State Board of Pharmacy at least 30 days prior to the expected date of relocation. An inspection of the premises by the Office of the Professions is required prior to the move. Applications are available by contacting the State Board. Renovation of a Registered Premises – Any proposed renovation of registered premises must be reported to the State Board of Pharmacy prior to changes being made. Change in Corporate Name or in Assumed (Trade) Names – Any changes in corporate name or in assumed (trade) names must be reported to the State Board of Pharmacy prior to use of the new name. Temporary Closing of an Establishment – The State Board of Pharmacy must be notified before any temporary closing as well as before any subsequent reopening. 10 Discontinuance of a Registration – Before an establishment is closed or discontinued, proper arrangements must be made for all drugs, records and the registration certificate. A discontinuance form along with supporting documents, must be completed by a corporate officer and sent to the Office of the State Board of Pharmacy. Forms are available by contacting the State Board. Sale of Drugs at Auction – The Office of the State Board of Pharmacy must be notified at least seven days before drugs are sold at auction. An inspector from the Office of the Professions will attend the auction. (See page 100) To determine the registration status of an establishment or for assistance regarding a registration matter, please contact the Office of the State Board of Pharmacy as indicated on page 4. You can also verify the registration status of a pharmacy establishment on the Web at www.op.nysed.gov. DISCONTINUATION PROCESS FOR PHARMACIES, MANUFACTURERS, REPACKERS AND WHOLESALERS The process of discontinuing a pharmaceutical establishment registered with the New York State Board of Pharmacy is a very serious matter. The following guidelines should help the owner and supervisor in the process. Failure to provide the required documents and information to the State Board may result in charges of abandonment or other misconduct (29.7 (a)(20) page 73). Before a pharmacy establishment is discontinued, a discontinuance form must be completed then signed and dated by a corporate officer and submitted to the Board Office. Forms are available by contacting the State Board of Pharmacy (See page 4). An inspection may be completed by the Office of the Professions. In addition, the owner and/or supervisor of the establishment should address the following: Date of Closing – All drugs and devices must be removed from the establishment and the premises vacated by the registrant by the date of closing. Prescription Drugs (non-controlled) and Devices – Prescription drugs and devices may be disposed of in a variety of methods. Full bottles of drugs may be sold to another registered establishment on a one-time basis to facilitate the closing of a pharmacy or manufacturer/wholesaler. Drugs may also be returned to wholesalers or manufacturers. In the case of a pharmacy, open bottles may be sold in one lot to a registered pharmacy. Copies of the Bills of Sale or credits must be submitted to the Board Office along with the discontinuance form. Controlled Drugs – For guidance in the disposal of controlled substances contact the New York State Health Department, Bureau of Controlled Substances at (518) 402-0707. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) should also be contacted at (212) 337-3900 to surrender the pharmacy’s DEA registration. Outdated and non-returnable/non-saleable drugs – Outdated and non-returnable, nonsaleable drugs should be destroyed in a safe and environmentally correct manner. A medical waste refuge company should be contacted to destroy large quantities. A record of destruction should be retained and copies available if requested by the Office of the Professions. 11 Records – All records, including prescription files, must be retained for five years. The owner of the discontinued pharmacy shall notify the department as to the disposition of prescription records. Prescription records shall never be sold or given away to a person who does not currently possess a registration to operate a pharmacy. The Board Office must be apprised of the location of all records. Signs – All signs that make reference to “Pharmacy”, “Drug Store”, “Apothecary”, “Drugs” or any other similar terms must be removed from the premises. Registration Certificate – The pharmacy establishment’s registration certificate must be surrendered to the Pharmacy Board Office along with the discontinuance form. GENERAL INFORMATION SOURCES The following references are frequently requested by pharmacists as well as owners and supervisors of pharmacy establishments. Please contact the appropriate office or agency for the most current information. NEW YORK STATE CONTACTS • • New York State Controlled Substances Act, Article 33 of the Public Health Law is available on the Web at www.assembly.state.ny.us Chapter 11 of the Administrative Rules and Regulations, Subchapter J, Part 80 - Rules and Regulations on Controlled Substances are available by contacting the: New York State Department of Health Bureau of Controlled Substances 433 River Street, 5th Floor Troy, New York 12180 Phone: (518) 402-0707 Fax: (518) 402-0709 E-mail: narcotic@health.state.ny.us Web: www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/narcotics • • • • Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC): 800-332-3742 Department of Health (General Information Number): (518) 474-5422 Medicaid Provider Enrollment: (518) 486-9440 Medicaid Policy: (518) 486-3209 NEW YORK STATE COLLEGES OF PHARMACY Long Island University Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences 75 DeKalb Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11202 Phone: (718) 488-1234 12 St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions Grand Central and Utopia Parkways Jamaica, New York 11439 Phone: (718) 990-6411 State University of New York at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Cooke Hall Amherst, New York 14260 Phone: (716) 645-2823 Union University Albany College of Pharmacy 106 New Scotland Avenue Albany, New York 12208 Phone: (518) 445-7200 FEDERAL PUBLICATION RESOURCES • Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Public Law 91-513 is available by contacting the: U.S. Department of Justice 99 10th Avenue New York, New York 10011 (212) 337-1593 Information on: • • • Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act as amended January 1971 Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, Public Law 91-601 Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Food and Drugs Is available by contacting the: Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Phone: (202) 512-1800 Web: www.access.gpo.gov 13 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR PHARMACISTS AND PHARMACIES The New York State Education Department and the State Board of Pharmacy are pleased to provide you with information on recently approved rules and regulations that will affect your practice and provide for greater public protection. The information provided is intended for general use and is not law or rule. Pharmacists and other interested individuals should consult the appropriate statute(s), rule(s) or regulation(s) if they have an issue related to professional practice. This series of Questions and Answers is also available on the Office of the Professions Web site at: www.op.nysed.gov TABLE OF CONTENTS Patient Counseling .................................................................................................. Page 14 Assistance by Unlicensed Personnel ..................................................................... Page 16 Retail Drug Price List ............................................................................................. Page 17 Registration of Out–of-State Establishments ....................................................... Page 18 Further Information .............................................................................................. Page 19 Patient Counseling 1. When is a pharmacist or registered pharmacy intern required to counsel a patient? Answer: A pharmacist or pharmacy intern must personally provide patient education (counseling): before dispensing a medication to a new patient of the pharmacy; before filling a new prescription for an existing patient of the pharmacy (i.e. introducing a new drug entity into the patient profile); and/or if the dose, strength, route of administration, or directions for use has changed for an existing prescription previously dispensed to an existing patient of the pharmacy. 2. Is a refill authorization or a prescription for continued therapy considered a new prescription? Answer: No. Since the patient has been treated with the drug in the recent past, the patient will most likely be familiar with the medication’s dosage form, route of administration, common side effects, etc. Therefore, you are not required to provide counseling unless the patient requests counseling when it is offered. The State Board of Pharmacy recommends, however, that counseling be provided to a patient if the patient has not been treated with the drug within the last 90 days. 14 3. When a pharmacist or pharmacy intern provides counseling, what aspects of medication therapy should be covered? Answer: A pharmacist or pharmacy intern should use his/her professional judgment when deciding what to discuss with a patient during counseling. Depending on the situation, you may choose to discuss among the following: the name and description of the medication and known indications; dosage form, dosage, route of administration and duration of drug therapy; special directions and precautions for preparation, administration and use by the patient; common severe side effects or adverse effects or interactions and therapeutic contraindications that may be encountered, including how to avoid them, and actions required if they occur; techniques for self-monitoring drug therapy; proper storage; prescription refill information; and/or action to be taken in the event of a missed dose. Pharmacists, pharmacy interns and all health care practitioners are required to provide patient education in a confidential manner. 4. Are New York State registered mail-order and "Internet" pharmacies required to provide counseling to patients? Answer: Yes. Registered pharmacies that conduct business through the mail or by common carrier must include written notification that counseling is available and provide a toll-free number where the pharmacist or pharmacy intern can be readily reached. A pharmacist or pharmacy intern must be available to provide counseling. If the pharmacist or pharmacy intern determines that there are potential drug therapy problems which could endanger the health of the patient, including but not limited to: therapeutic duplication, drug-drug interactions and drug-allergy interactions, the patient must be contacted prior to filling the prescription. Alternatively, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern may contact the prescriber and obtain permission to dispense an alternative drug. If a prescriber gives approval for the dispensing of an alternative drug, the pharmacist must include a notice of the change with the order and make two documented attempts to telephone and inform the patient of the change within 48 hours of mailing or delivery. A telephone call is not required for generic substitution. 15 5. If a patient is having a prescription refilled or having a prescription filled for medications previously received, are we still required to offer to provide counseling? Answer: Yes. An offer to provide counseling must be made every time a patient has a prescription refilled or has a prescription filled for a medication therapy that has been re-authorized by a prescriber. Any member of the pharmacy staff can make the offer to counsel on behalf of a pharmacist, including pharmacy interns, clerks, “technicians,” etc. If a patient requests to be counseled, a pharmacist or pharmacy intern must be available to provide counseling. If prescription drugs have been ordered through a registered pharmacy by mail or on the Web, the pharmacist must provide the patient with a written offer to counsel and a toll-free number where the pharmacist or pharmacy intern can be readily reached. 6. Can I dispense a prescription to a patient if the patient declines counseling or simply refuses to be counseled? Answer: Yes. You must document the patient's decision to decline or refuse counseling in your pharmacy's records. 7. How will counseling requirements be monitored and enforced? Answer: The Education Department and the Board of Pharmacy appreciate the vital role pharmacists play in the health care system. Counseling provides an opportunity for pharmacists to provide consumers with information necessary to comply with medication regimens or avoid potentially harmful interactions. Good patient counseling also helps to reduce prescription and medication errors. The Department will enforce this provision by incorporating observation of counseling in our routine inspections of pharmacies. We will also review counseling procedures whenever a prescription or counseling error is brought to our attention. Assistance by Unlicensed Personnel 8. Is there a limit to the number of unlicensed personnel (frequently called “pharmacy technicians”) that may assist a pharmacist? Answer: Yes. Up to two unlicensed persons may assist a pharmacist with filling prescriptions. Staff involved in other duties not directly related to the filling of prescriptions are NOT counted in the 2:1 ratio. 9. What is the effect of the recent change in the Rule of the Board of Regents that defines which functions unlicensed personnel may perform under the supervision of a pharmacist? 16 Answer: In the past, the rule was occasionally misunderstood to include cashiers, delivery staff, etc. in the 2:1 ratio. The revision clarifies that staff not directly related to the filling of prescriptions are NOT counted in the ratio. 10. Are registered pharmacy interns included in the 2:1 ratio? Answer: No. Registered pharmacy interns may practice as pharmacists under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. Retail Drug Price List 11. What is the Drug Retail Price List? Answer: The Drug Retail Price List is a list of the 150 most frequently prescribed drugs, in the most common quantities. The list of 150 drugs will be updated annually by the State Board of Pharmacy and distributed to every New York State registered pharmacy. 12. How will we receive a copy of the Drug Retail Price List? Answer: The State Education Department will distribute a paper copy to every pharmacy annually. Electronic versions are available to you on the Web at www.op.nysed.gov/pharm2003pricelist.htm. You may also request a copy by emailing the State Board of Pharmacy at pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov. Additionally, we will make copies available to pharmacy computer software vendors. 13. Are New York State registered pharmacies required to make their Drug Retail Price List available to consumers? Answer: Yes. Every pharmacy that sells drugs at retail must make a Drug Retail Price List available with prices of the 150 most frequently prescribed drugs. The pharmacy must also display a sign in bold, block letters at least one inch in height that states “Drug Retail Price List Available Upon Request”. Consumers may request a computer-generated list to take with them when they leave the pharmacy. Pharmacies offering to dispense prescription drugs to consumers in New York State through the Internet are required to post a notice of availability of the drug retail price list and a toll-free number to obtain the list on your Web site. Pharmacies offering to dispense prescription drugs to consumers in New York State through mail order are required to include a printed notice with each delivery of a prescription drug informing the consumer of the availability of the drug retail price list and provide a toll-free telephone number to obtain the list. 14. Does the Drug Retail Price list replace the Prescription Price Poster? Answer: Yes. You are no longer required to display the Prescription Price Poster. 17 15. How often is a pharmacy required to update the selling price of the drugs on the list? Answer: You must update the list at least weekly. 16. If our selling price changes during the week, can we legally charge the new price? Answer: Yes. 17. Are we allowed to quote prescription prices over the phone? Answer: Yes, though you are not required to do so, you are encouraged to provide prescription prices to consumers over the phone upon request. Registration of Out-of-State Establishments 18. Are all pharmacy establishments located in other states now required to register to do business in New York State? Answer: Yes. Any establishment that routinely ships or delivers prescription drugs to professionals or patients in New York State must register with the Education Department through the State Board of Pharmacy. This includes manufacturers and wholesalers of drugs and registered pharmacies. 19. Do the new requirements apply to-mail order and “Internet” pharmacies? Answer: Yes. The new law and regulations apply to all pharmacy establishments doing business in New York State. 20. Are there any exceptions to this requirement? Answer: Yes. When transactions are isolated, the registration requirement may be waived. New regulations define isolated transactions as fewer than 600 prescriptions per year for pharmacies or sales that total less than $10,000 at wholesale, per calendar year. The Board of Pharmacy may also waive the registration requirement in an emergency. 21. Is there a way to confirm that out-of-state establishments, including “Internet” pharmacies are properly registered? Answer: Yes. You can verify that manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies are registered on the Office of the Professions Web site at www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches.htm#rx . You can search for establishments located within New York State as well as those located elsewhere by name or registration number. 18 22. What can I do if an out-of-state firm that routinely ships or delivers prescription drugs to professionals or patients in New York State is not listed among registered firms on the Web site? Answer: Please notify the Office of the State Board of Pharmacy by phone at (518) 474-3817 ext. 130 or by e-mail at pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov. Further Information 23. Who do I contact if I have additional questions or need more information? Answer: Please contact the State Board of Pharmacy by phone at (518) 474-3817 ext. 130; fax at (518) 473-6995; or by e-mail at pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov. 19 CONTINUING EDUCATION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR PHARMACISTS Education Law requires pharmacists renewing registration of a license to complete continuing education. A minimum of 45 contact hours (at least 23 live) is required in each three-year registration period. With each new registration period starting September 1, 2003 and for each registration period thereafter, at least three of the required hours must be formal continuing education on strategies and techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors. The laws that apply to the continuing education requirements for pharmacists are found in Article 137 of New York’s Education Law. They are available through the Office of the Professions’ Web site at www.op.nysed.gov/title8.htm or upon request at (518) 474-3817, extension 320 or by e-mail at opforms@mail.nysed.gov. Dates and Amounts of Continuing Education 1. How many hours of continuing education are required? May I take more then the specified number? A minimum of 45 hours is required to be completed by New York State registered pharmacists during every three-year registration period except during the first three-year registration period following initial licensure. The majority (at least 23) of the hours must be completed through live courses. With each new registration period starting September 1, 2003 and for each registration period thereafter, as part of the 45 hours you will be required to complete at least 3 hours (home study or live) of formal continuing education on strategies and techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors. If your registration period is for less than 3 years (36 months), your continuing education requirement is calculated at 1.25 hours for every month of the registration period. In all cases, more than half of the hours must be live credits. The 3 credits (home study or live) on techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors are required for every registration period. You can take additional courses beyond the 45 hours required during a three-year renewal, but the additional hours cannot be stored, carried forward or applied to a future registration period. There is no minimum annual requirement. 2. What is an hour of continuing education? An hour is one contact hour of at least 50 minutes duration. Some course providers may express continuing education hours in different units of measurement: One continuing education unit (CEU) equals 10 contact hours. To convert CEU’s to contact hours, multiply the CEU’s by 10. To convert contact hours to CEU’s, divide the contact hours by 10. One semester hour of college-level course work equals 15 contact hours; one quarter hour of college-level course work equals 10 contact hours. 20 3. Am I required to spread continuing education courses evenly over my registration period? No. You may complete your continuing education at any time throughout your three-year registration period. You may take all courses in one year, if you wish. To Whom does the Continuing Education Requirement Apply 4. Who is required to take continuing education? Every pharmacist wishing to practice in New York State must complete continuing education. Therefore, all registered pharmacists beyond the initial term of registration must comply with continuing education requirements. Failure to complete the required continuing education prior to the expiration of a registration period may subject you to charges of professional misconduct. 5. I just graduated and received my license, and am in my first registration period. Do I need to begin taking continuing education immediately? No. Practitioners do not need to take continuing education during their first three-year registration period following initial licensure. After that, 45 hours (23 live) are required over each three-year registration period. 6. I am seeking licensure or I am newly licensed in New York after practicing in another state. Am I required to complete continuing education? If you received your original (out-of-state) license less than three years ago, you do not need any continuing education in New York yet. If you have been licensed for three years or more in another state before your New York license was issued, then you must meet New York’s continuing education requirement of 45 contact hours (at least 23 live) of acceptable continuing education courses. The 45 credits must include at least 3 credits (home study or live) on techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors. You may count courses meeting New York's requirements taken within the 36 months prior to your New York application for licensure. 7. I am licensed in New York State but not registered because I am practicing in another jurisdiction. Do I need to complete continuing education before I can reactivate my registration in New York? Yes. To reactivate your registration in New York, you will need 45 contact hours (at least 23 live) of acceptable continuing education courses. The 45 credits must include at least 3 credits (home study or live) on techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors. The continuing education must be in appropriate subject areas and offered by approved sponsors. Since you are actively practicing, you will be able to count continuing education credits earned up to 36 months prior to the month in which you reactivate your registration. 21 8. I am licensed in New York State but not registered and have not been practicing my profession. Do I need to complete continuing education before I can reactivate my registration in New York? Yes. To reactivate your registration in New York, you will need 45 contact hours (at least 23 live) of acceptable continuing education courses. The 45 credits must include at least 3 credits (home study or live) on techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors. The continuing education must be in appropriate subject areas and offered by approved sponsors. Since you are not actively practicing, you will only be able to count continuing education credits earned up to 12 months prior to the month in which you reactivate your registration. Continuing Education Courses and Sponsors 9. What types of continuing education are acceptable? Formal courses in appropriate subjects offered by approved sponsors (providers) are acceptable. Both formal self-study courses and formal courses in which you interact with an instructor are acceptable. Self-study courses must constitute less than one-half of the total hours (a maximum of 22 contact hours out of 45). 10. What are “appropriate subjects” for continuing education? Courses must contribute to the professional practice of pharmacy. Acceptable subjects include: • • • • • • • • • • • techniques to reduce medication and prescription errors (mandatory 3 credits) pharmacology of new or developing drugs; drug interactions; public health issues; infection control; child abuse reporting; sterile procedures; legal and regulatory issues; patient counseling; other topics that contribute to the professional practice of pharmacy; and other matters of health care, law, and ethics that contribute to the public's health and welfare. The subject matter must be related to professional practice. Therefore, courses in such subjects as HIV/AIDS management are acceptable. Continuing Medical Education courses relevant to pharmacy practice, such as courses in the pharmacology of new drugs, are acceptable; courses not related to pharmacy practice (e.g., surgery) are not. Similarly, epidemiology courses in graduate degree programs for pharmacists are acceptable; courses in those programs that are not so related (e.g., accounting, finance, statistics) are not acceptable. 22 11. Who are approved providers? There are three types of approved sponsors (providers): (1) Sponsors approved by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE) or by an equivalent organization that the State Board of Pharmacy determines to have equivalent standards (e.g., sponsors of continuing medical education). ACPE publishes an annual directory of "Approved Providers of Continuing Pharmaceutical Education." It is available from the Council at 311 West Superior Street, Suite 512, Chicago, IL 60610; telephone: (312) 664-3575; fax: (312) 664-4652; Web listing: www.acpe-accredit.org, click on “Provider Approval Program,” then “Accredited Providers.” (2) Colleges, universities, and other degree-granting institutions offering degree (e.g., A.A.S., B.S., M.S., Pharm.D., Ph.D.) and certificate and diploma programs bearing degree credit that are registered by the Education Department or that are accredited by an equivalent accrediting agency, for courses in those registered or accredited programs. The State Education Department has an Inventory of Registered Programs listing all degree-granting institutions in the State. Contact the Office of Higher Education, State Education Department, Education Building, Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234; phone: (518) 474-5851, or find it at the State Education Department’s Web site at www.nysed.gov. (3) Sponsors approved directly by the Department. For information on sponsors approved directly by the Department, call (518) 474-3817, extension 130 or fax (518) 473-6995, or check the Office of the Professions Web site at www.op.nysed.gov/pharm.htm. 12. May I study on my own rather than take a formal live or self-study course? No. Only formal courses offered by approved sponsors may be counted toward the continuing education requirement. Similarly, informal group "study clubs" of pharmacists that are not approved sponsors cannot be accepted. Formal courses offered by approved sponsors assure course content, effective evaluation, and record keeping by the provider. 13. Am I required to take self-study courses? No. All of the courses may be "live" courses in which you interact with an instructor, if you wish. 14. Are “live courses” limited to those in which I’m in the same room with the instructor? No. We consider a telecourse or teleconference in which you and the instructor can speak directly with each other to be a "live" course. Similarly, a course in which you and other practitioners discuss a taped presentation with a facilitator's assistance is a “live course.” A course offered by computer in which you interact directly with the instructor in “real time” is a "live" course. On the other hand, a televised lecture with no means of direct interaction would not be acceptable as a "live" course, even if it is a live telecast. 23 15. Are Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) courses acceptable continuing education? Yes, including CPR, BLS and ACLS courses sponsored by the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association. You may count an initial CPR course for up to five hours of continuing education; a CPR recertification course for up to three hours; a BLS course for up to three hours; an initial ACLS course for up to twelve and an ACLS recertification for up to six hours. (Note: First Aid courses are NOT acceptable.) 16. Are Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) programs acceptable continuing education? Yes, you may count an initial EMT Basic course for ten hours of continuing education and an EMT Basic recertification course for five hours. 17. May I count a continuing education course that I teach toward my requirement? Yes. You may count once during a registration period the hours in a continuing education course you teach that an approved sponsor offers in an acceptable subject area. Record Keeping and Reporting 18. What records will I have to keep? You need to keep the following five items of information on each course for six years from the date you completed it: (1) title of the course or program and any identification number assigned to it by the sponsor, (2) number of hours completed, (3) the sponsor's name and any identifying number, (4) verification by the sponsor of your attendance, and (5) the date and location of the program or course. All five elements are likely to be provided on a certificate of completion from the sponsor. 19. How will I report having completed the continuing education requirements? You will report your compliance with the continuing education requirements on your form to renew your registration. You will be required to certify, under penalty of perjury, that you have completed the required hours of continuing education and to submit your required fee (it includes the continuing education fee of $45 as set forth in Education Law). 20. Do I have to file copies of my records of continuing education? Only if you are instructed to do so. You are required to make your continuing education records available for inspection by the Education Department upon request. Random audits of continuing education records are conducted. 21. If the Department conducts an audit of my continuing education records, what will I have to provide? You will have to provide your original records of completion of each continuing education course to the Department. An official list/summary of your courses provided by a professional association such as PSSNY may be submitted in lieu of the certificates. 24 22. What if the audit reveals discrepancies? You may be subject to disciplinary proceedings for professional misconduct. According to Section 29.1 of the Rules of the Board of Regents, willfully making or filing a false report is unprofessional conduct. Penalties may include censure and reprimand, fine, and/or suspension or revocation of your license to practice in New York State. Options Available 23. Are there any exceptions to the continuing education requirement? The Department may grant an adjustment (not an exemption) to the requirement for poor health, certified by a physician; a specific physical or mental disability, certified by an appropriate health-care professional; extended duty with the armed forces; or for extreme hardship which, in the Department's judgment, makes it impossible for the licensee to comply. Contact the State Board of Pharmacy for more information. 24. What if I fail to complete the required number of hours during a registration period? A licensee who admits to noncompliance with the continuing education requirements when registering may request and may be granted a one-year conditional registration by the Education Department. Conditional registrations are not automatic and cannot be renewed. Conditional registrations have specific requirements including your agreement to: (1) complete the hours lacking from your previous registration, (2) complete the regular continuing education requirement at a rate of 1.25 contact hours per month during the conditional-registration period, (3) pay the regular registration fee indicated on your registration form, and (4) at the end of the conditional registration, provide proof of course completion and pay an additional registration fee equal to the fee paid when the conditional was requested. 25. What if I do not meet the continuing education requirement and simply do not renew my registration? Fine, as long as you are not practicing your profession in New York State. Your status will remain “not registered” until you meet the continuing education requirement and submit a registration renewal application with the appropriate fee. If you practice your profession while unregistered or after the Department has denied renewal of your registration for failure to report completion of the required contact hours of continuing education, you will be subject to disciplinary proceedings for professional misconduct. Contact Information 26. Who should I contact for more information on the continuing education requirement? You should contact the Office of the State Board of Pharmacy, New York State Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, 2nd floor, Albany, NY 12234-1000, phone: (518) 474-3817, option 1, extension 130, fax: (518) 473-6995, e-mail: pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov. 25 For current information on continuing education and for updates and any changes in the continuing education requirements, check the Office of the Professions Web site at: www.op.nysed.gov. 26 27 ELECTRONIC TRANSMITTAL OF PRESCRIPTIONS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS General Information 1. What is an electronically transmitted prescription? Answer: An electronically transmitted prescription is created, transmitted, recorded or stored by electronic means such as facsimile or computer systems. 2. Are there any special requirements when transmitting prescriptions electronically? Answer: YES. Prescribers and pharmacists must have a secure (encrypted or encoded) system for electronic transmission from computer to computer or PDA to fax machine. Any equipment used for electronic transmission of prescriptions should be so located to ensure the security and confidentiality of the transmission. Procedures for electronic transmission of prescriptions should be documented. Electronically transmitted prescriptions must: • • • contain the prescriber's signature or the electronic equivalent; be protected from unauthorized access, alteration or use ; and have the initials of the pharmacist or pharmacy intern entered into the pharmacy's records to indicate acceptance of the prescription by the pharmacy. The information retained electronically should be capable of being reconstructed in the event of a computer malfunction or accident resulting in the destruction of data. Other electronic transfer requirements are outlined in the following questions and answers. 3. Who may transmit original prescriptions electronically? Answer: Only a person legally authorized to prescribe, or an employee expressly approved by the prescriber consistent with existing law, may transmit a prescription electronically (section 6810 of the Education Law). When electronic data-processing equipment is used, the input of drug information may be performed by an authorized prescriber or a pharmacist. If orders are entered by other personnel, the pharmacist must certify the accuracy of the information entered and verify the prescription prior to the dispensing of the medication. 4. Are pharmacists/prescribers obligated to transmit prescriptions electronically? Answer: NO. Electronic transmission of prescriptions is an option. Prescribers and pharmacists do not have to transmit prescriptions electronically. 28 5. Can a prescriber direct prescriptions to a particular pharmacy? Answer: NO. Patients have the right to choose the pharmacy where they wish to have their prescription filled. Practitioners who exert undue influence on a patient (known as steering) to have a prescription filled at any one pharmacy over another whether electronically transmitted or via a written or oral prescription are subject to charges of professional misconduct. Pharmacist/Pharmacy Requirements 6. Is a pharmacist responsible for determining the authenticity of a prescription transmitted electronically? Answer: YES. Pharmacists are responsible for assuring the validity of all written, oral and electronically transmitted prescriptions. There are a number of ways to do this, such as using new software programs that require passwords, personal identification numbers (PINs) or other authentication of the prescriber. These programs also notify the pharmacist if an encrypted or encoded electronic message or "envelope" has been tampered with or altered. Prescribers and pharmacists must use compatible programs. The Board of Pharmacy, in an effort to assist practitioners, is sharing information on companies that have either indicated that they now have or are developing software that will provide secure electronic transmission of prescriptions. Please note that this information is neither an endorsement of the referenced companies and their products, nor a guarantee that the software meets or exceeds the requirements of the regulations. Each licensee is responsible for assuring that their hardware/software systems comply with all requirements. Prescriptions transmitted by facsimile also require careful attention. For faxed prescriptions, we suggest that pharmacists apply strategies similar to those now used to verify oral and written prescriptions received when authenticity is not apparent. The best professional judgment of the pharmacist is the key to a safe and effective process. The steps used to verify phoned prescriptions may also be useful for faxed prescriptions. These steps may include: • • • • • • calling the prescriber's office to verify a prescription if the prescriber is not known to the pharmacist; accepting a phoned-in prescription in lieu of the faxed or computer-transmitted prescription; asking for proof of identity if the person picking up the prescription is not known to the pharmacist; asking prescribers in the area to use an identifier on the faxed prescription form that indicates recopying or retransmittal. Such marks are commonly used to indicate if that document has been copied from an original; ensuring that the prescribed drug, based on quantity, directions for use, etc., is consistent with the patient's medication profile; using other methods such as installing "Caller ID" on the phone line that is used to receive fax prescriptions; and/or 29 • considering whether the prescribed drug is one with an abuse potential or otherwise has "street value." Without special safeguards, e-mail transmissions do not independently assure the required confidentiality of patient records and do not, therefore, meet the definition of an electronically transmitted prescription in the new rules and regulations. If a pharmacist has reason to question the authenticity of the electronically-transmitted prescription, the pharmacist's professional judgment must prevail. If verification is not possible, the pharmacist can choose not to accept the electronically-transmitted prescription and can request transmission by another means from the prescriber. 7. Is a pharmacy required to print and maintain a hard copy of an electronicallytransmitted prescription? Answer: YES. Just as other records must be maintained under existing laws, printed copies of electronically transmitted prescriptions must be maintained for five (5) years. Likewise, facsimile copies must be maintained in a readable fashion for five (5) years. 8. What should a pharmacist do if he or she believes that dispensing a prescription will cause harm to the patient? Answer: All pharmacies, including those providing prescriptions through a mail-order service, are required to maintain a medication profile for each patient and to check for adverse drug reactions. Each licensee must practice according to his or her best professional judgment and the law. If there are concerns that a prescription can cause harm to a patient, a pharmacist may contact the prescriber. If a pharmacist believes that a prescription can cause harm to a patient, even after discussion with the prescriber, the pharmacist can choose not to fill the prescription. 9. What should a pharmacist do if he or she believes a prescriber is ordering a prescription that is not consistent with the prescriber's scope of practice? Answer: If a prescriber cannot legally order the prescription based upon the prescriber's scope of practice, the pharmacist must not fill the prescription. Pharmacy Personnel 10. What changes have been made concerning the professional reference books that pharmacies are required to have? Answer: Pharmacies are no longer required to have one specific reference book, the United States Pharmacopoeia Dispensing Information. However, pharmacies must have copies of current laws, rules and regulations governing the practice of pharmacy in New York. Pharmacists must also have ready access to current references such as books, CD-ROM or other on-line resources. 11. Has the ratio of unlicensed assistants to pharmacists been changed? Answer: YES. Effective with the implementation of these regulations, pharmacists may now have the assistance of two unlicensed assistants at one time (Part 29.7(a)(22) 30 Rules of the Board of Regents). However, the responsibility of dispensing rests with the pharmacist. The pharmacist must check all prescriptions filled by an unlicensed assistant before they are dispensed. 12. Do registered pharmacy interns count in the ratio? Answer: NO. Registered pharmacy interns may practice as pharmacists under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. 13. Has there been a change in what functions an unlicensed person may perform in a pharmacy? Answer: YES. Unlicensed persons may now key data into computer files. However, the pharmacist must verify all of the information prior to dispensing of a prescription by entering his or her initials or other personal identifier. The record of the dispensing must clearly identify the dispensing pharmacist. The responsibility of dispensing rests with the pharmacist. Controlled Substances 14. May a controlled substance prescription be electronically transmitted? Answer: NO. A prescription for a controlled substance may not be transmitted electronically pursuant to Article 33 of the Public Health Law. 15. Can controlled substance refills be transferred from one pharmacy to another? Answer: NO. Refills 16. May a non-controlled substance prescription with authorized refills remaining be refilled at another pharmacy? Answer: YES. One refill at a time from one pharmacist to another may be transferred at the express request of the patient. 17. Can all remaining authorized refills be transferred to another pharmacy at once? Answer: NO. Transfers of authorized refills must occur one at a time. 18. What happens to all the remaining authorized refills? Answer: The original pharmacy may continue to dispense the balance of the authorized refills. 31 Transfer of Prescriptions 19. What is the responsibility of the pharmacist who is transferring information for a prescription refill? Answer: To record the following: • • • • • • the name of the patient; that an authorized refill of the prescription has been transferred; name, address and telephone number of the pharmacy to which it was transferred; name of the pharmacist receiving the prescription information; name of the pharmacist transferring the information; and the date of the transfer. 20. What is the responsibility of the pharmacist who receives a refill transfer? Answer: To produce a hard copy of the prescription information, ensure that the term "refill transfer" appears on the face of the hard copy, and record the following: • • • • • • • the name of the patient; that an authorized refill of the prescription has been transferred; the name, address and telephone number of the pharmacy from which it was transferred; the name of the pharmacist receiving the prescription information; the name of the pharmacist transferring the information; the date of the original prescription and most recent transfer; and the original prescription number. Confidentiality 21. Must a pharmacy obtain permission from a patient to enter in or access from a shared database the patient's medical and/or prescription information? Answer: YES. 22. Does such permission have to be documented? Answer: YES. The pharmacist is required to obtain permission that is documented as a patient's express written consent. 23. What if a person refuses to have his/her information entered into a shared database? Answer: A consumer may refuse to have his/her information entered into a shared database. The pharmacy that originally filled the prescription must place a "firewall" around the data. This "firewall" must prevent access to patient-specific information by an unauthorized individual at another location. 32 Further Information 24. Who do I contact for more information about the electronic transmission of prescriptions? Answer: The mailing address for all individuals and offices listed below is: Office of the Professions, State Education Building - 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12234 • • • • • • Dentistry: New York State Board for Dentistry (518) 474-3817 ext. 550; Fax (518) 473-6995; E-mail dentbd@mail.nysed.gov. Medicine & Veterinary Medicine: New York State Boards for Medicine & Veterinary Medicine (518) 474-3817 ext. 560; Fax (518) 486-4846; E-mail medbd@mail.nysed.gov and vetmedbd@mail.nysed.gov. Nursing: New York State Board for Nursing (518) 474-3817 ext. 120; Fax (518) 474-3706; E-mail nursebd@mail.nysed.gov. Optometry: New York State Board for Optometry (518) 474-3817 ext. 591; Fax (518) 473-6995; E-mail optombd@mail.nysed.gov. Pharmacy & Midwifery: New York State Boards of Pharmacy & Midwifery (518) 474-3817 ext. 130; Fax (518) 473-6995; E-mail pharmbd@mail.nysed.gov and midwifbd@mail.nysed.gov. Podiatry: New York State Board for Podiatry (518) 474-3817 ext. 180; Fax (518) 402-5944; E-mail podbd@mail.nysed.gov. 33 PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT A license to practice a profession in New York State is in effect for life unless surrendered by the holder or revoked by the Board of Regents upon a finding of professional misconduct. Professional misconduct is defined in Article 130 section 6509 of Education Law and in Part 29 of the Rules of the Board of Regents which can be accessed on the Web at www.op.nysed.gov/part 29.htm. It is the responsibility of every professional to be aware of the laws and regulations governing her or his profession. Professional misconduct includes: • practicing beyond the authorized scope of practice; • practicing fraudulently; • practicing with gross negligence or gross incompetence or with negligence or incompetence • • • • • • • • • • on more than one occasion; practicing while the ability to practice is impaired by alcohol, drugs, or mental disability; being a habitual user of drugs; being convicted of a crime; unlawful fee splitting; delegating professional duties to an unauthorized person; physically or sexually abusing a patient; filing false reports; failing to maintain proper records; ordering excessive or unnecessary tests; and other serious matters. The Office of the Professions investigates and prosecutes allegations of professional misconduct in all professions except medicine (which includes physicians, physician assistants, and specialist assistants) where it is the responsibility of the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) of the New York State Department of Health. REPORTING PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT OR UNLICENSED PRACTICE Any person who suspects or has knowledge of professional misconduct should report the information to the appropriate Office of the Professions office listed below. Complaints may be treated confidentially. If an investigation develops sufficient evidence, disciplinary proceedings will be commenced. In the most serious cases, these proceedings may lead to the Regents suspending or revoking a license. The public is placed at risk whenever an unlicensed person illegally practices a profession. The Office of the Professions has jurisdiction to investigate the practice of a profession by someone who is not licensed, which is a criminal act punishable as a Class E Felony. Any professional who discovers such illegal practice should immediately report the information to the appropriate office listed below. This should occur as soon as the illegal practice is suspected so that an investigation can be conducted and prompt action may be taken to protect the public and preserve the integrity of the profession involved. 34 To report professional misconduct for professions other than medicine or unlicensed practice, call, write, or e-mail the Office of the Professions. • Toll-free Professional Misconduct Hotline: 1-800-442-8106 • E-mail address: conduct@mail.nysed.gov. Complainants may also call or write any of the following regional offices: 8Albany Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 80 Wolf Road, Suite 204, Albany, NY 12205 [phone: (518) 485-9350; fax: (518) 485-9361]. 8Bronx and Queens Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 2400 Halsey Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 [phone: (718) 794-2457 or 2458; fax: (718) 794-2480]. 8Brooklyn and Staten Island Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 195 Montague Street, 4th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201 [phone: (718) 246-3060; fax: (718) 246-3096]. 8Buffalo Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 295 Main Street, Suite 756, Buffalo, NY 14203 [phone: (716) 842-6550; fax: (716) 842-6551]. 8Long Island Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 1121 Walt Whitman Road, Suite 301, Melville, NY 11747 [phone: (631) 425-7758; fax: (631) 425-9109]. 8Manhattan Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 163 West 125th Street, Room 819, New York, NY 10027 [phone: (212) 961-4369; fax: (212)-961-4361] 8Mid-Hudson Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, One Gateway Plaza, 3rd Floor, Port Chester, NY 10573 [phone: (914) 934-7550; fax: (914) 934-7607]. 8Rochester Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, 220 Idlewood Road, Room 106, Rochester, NY 14618 [phone: (585) 241-2810; fax: (585) 241-2816]. 8Syracuse Regional Office: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Office of Professional Discipline, State Tower Building, 109 South Warren Street, Suite 320, Syracuse, NY 13202 [phone: (315) 476-5081; fax: (315) 476-5182]. To report misconduct by a physician, a physician assistant, or a specialist assistant, write or call the Office of Professional Medical Conduct, New York State Department of Health, 433 River Street, Suite 303, Troy, NY 12180-2299 [phone: 1-800-663-6114 or (518) 402-0836]. 35 PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM The Office of the Professions’ Professional Assistance Program (PAP) assists licensed professionals with addictive illness. The program allows professionals to voluntarily and confidentially surrender their licenses while entering and receiving treatment/education in acceptable programs. The PAP is only available to licensees who have not harmed patients or clients. In some cases, successful completion of the program may act as an alternative to disciplinary action. The Committee for Professional Assistance, composed primarily of experts in substance abuse, advises the Education Department on the administration of the program. A member of the appropriate State professional board sits ex officio on each PAP panel. The panels interview applicants and determine their suitability for the program, monitor progress, and determine the readiness of the licensee to resume professional practice. For additional information about this program, contact the Professional Assistance Program, New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, 80 Wolf Road, Suite 204, Albany, NY 12205; phone (518) 474-3817 ext. 480; or e-mail pap@mail.nysed.gov. 36 37 PAGE REFERENCE TO LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS The following pages contain the laws and regulations that govern your professional practice as a pharmacist or pharmacy intern. It is important that you familiarize yourself with these laws and regulations. Pay particular attention to Part 29 of the Regents Rules, which defines unprofessional conduct. Please note that updates to laws and regulations are available on the Office of the Professions Web site: www.op.nysed.gov. Laws and Regulations Specific to Pharmacy Education Law Article 137 – Pharmacy §6800. §6801. §6802. §6803. §6804. §6805. §6806. §6807. §6808. §6808-a. §6808-b §6810. §6811. §6811-a. §6811-b. §6812. §6813. §6814. §6815. §6816. §6816-a. §6817. §6818. §6818-a. §6819. §6820. §6821. §6822. §6823. §6824. §6825. §6826. §6827. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………42 Definition of practice of pharmacy ………………………………………………………………………… 42 Definitions …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 42 Practice of pharmacy and use of title "pharmacist" …..……………………………………………………. 43 State board of pharmacy ….………………………………………………………………………………... 43 Requirements for a professional license …………………………………………………………………… 43 Limited permits …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 44 Exempt persons …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 44 Registering and operating establishments …………………………………………………………………..45 Identification of pharmacists …………………………………………………………………………….… 46 Registration of nonresident establishments………………………………………………………………….46 Prescriptions …………………………….…………………………………………………………………..47 Misdemeanors …………………………..………………………………………………………………….. 49 Certain drugs to be clearly marked or labeled ….………………………………………………………….. 50 Door-to-door distribution of drugs prohibited …………………………………………………………….. 50 Special provisions ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 51 Seizure ……………….…………………………………………………………………………………….. 51 Records of shipment ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 51 Adulterating, misbranding and substituting ……………………………………………………………….. 51 Omitting to label drugs, or labeling them wrongly …….………………………………………………….. 53 When substitution is required …….………………..………………………………………………………. 53 New drugs …………………………..……………..……………………………………………………….. 54 Adulterated and misbranded cosmetics ……..……..………………………………………………………. 55 Cosmetic samples …….……..….……………………….…………………………………………………. 55 Regulations making exceptions ...……………………….…………………………………………………. 55 Certification of coal-tar colors for drugs and cosmetics …..………………………………………………. 55 Poison schedules; register ………………………………………………………………………………….. 55 Examinations and investigations ……….………………………………………………………………….. 56 Factory inspection ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 56 Injunction proceedings …………………………………………………………………………………….. 56 Proof required in prosecution for certain violations ……………………………………………………….. 56 Drug8Retail8Price8List ……………………………..........…………………………………………………57 Mandatory continuing education ……………………….………………………………………………….. 57 Commissioner’s Regulations Part 52.29 – Pharmacy §52.29 Pharmacy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………58 Part 63 – Pharmacy §63.1 §63.2 §63.3 §63.4 Professional study of pharmacy ……………………………………………………………………………. 59 Experience ……………...………………………………………………………………………………….. 59 Licensing examinations ...…..……………………………………………………………………………… 60 Limited permits ……...……………………………………………………………………………………...60 Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 38 §63.5 §63.6 §63.7 §63.8 License as a pharmacist by endorsement …………………………………………………………………... 60 Registration and operation of New York establishments ………….………………………………………. 60 Continuing education ………….………………………………………………….………………………... 65 Registration of nonresident establishments ………………………………………………………………... 68 Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 – Code of Federal Regulations Part 205 – Guideline for State Licensing of Wholesale Prescription Drug Distributors §205.1 §205.2 §205.3 §205.4 §205.5 §205.6 §205.7 §205.8 §205.50 Scope ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 70 Purpose …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 70 Definitions …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 70 Wholesale drug distributor licensing requirement ……………..…………………………………………. 70 Minimum required information for licensure ………..……………………………………………………. 70 Minimum qualifications ……...……………………………………………………………………………. 71 Personnel ..…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 71 Violations and penalties …...………………………………………………………………………………. 71 Minimum requirements for the storage and handling of prescription drugs and for the establishment and maintenance of prescription drug distribution records ……………………………………………………. 71 Public Health Law Part 80 – Possession and Sale of Hypodermic Syringes and Hypodermic Needles §80.131 §80.137 Prescription, sale and possession of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles ……………………… 73 Expanded syringe access demonstration program…………………………………. ……………………… 74 Article 33 – Offenses, Violations and Enforcement §3381 §415.18 Sale and possession of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles……………………………………. 75 Pharmacy services …………………..………………………………………………………………………77 Part 415 – Nursing Homes – Minimum Standards (Excerpts from Chapter V – Medical Facilities) Laws, Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Professions Education Law Article 130 – General Provisions Subarticle 1 – Introductory Summary §6500. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………80 §6501. Admission to a profession (licensing) ………………………………………………………………………80 §6501-a. Disclosure with respect to loans made or guaranteed by the New York state higher education services corporation ………………………………………………………………………………………... 80 §6502. Duration and registration of a license ……………………………………………………………………… 80 §6503. Practice of a profession …………………………………………………………………………………….. 81 §6504. Regulation of the professions ……………………………………………………………………………… 81 §6505. Construction ………………………………………………………………………………………………...81 §6505-a. Professional referrals ………………………………………………………………………………………. 81 §6505-b. Course work or training in infection control practices …………………………………………………….. 81 Subarticle 2. – State Management §6506. §6507. §6508. Supervision by the board of regents ………………………………………………………………………...81 Administration by the education department ……………………………………………………………….82 Assistance by state boards for the professions ……………………………………………………………...83 Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 39 Subarticle 3. – Professional Misconduct §6509. §6509-a. §6509-b. §6509-c. Definitions of professional misconduct ……………………………………………………………………. 84 Additional definition of professional misconduct; limited application ……………………………………. 84 Additional definition of professional misconduct; arrears in payment of support; limited application …... 85 Additional definition of professional misconduct; failure to comply in paternity or child support proceedings; limited application…..………………………………………………………………………... 85 §6510. Proceedings in cases of professional misconduct…………………………………………………………... 85 §6510-b. Temporary surrender of licenses during treatment for drug or alcohol abuse……………………………… 88 §6510-c. Nurse peer assistance programs……………………………………………..……………………………… 89 §6510-d. Voluntary non-disciplinary surrender of a license…………………………..………………………………90 §6511. Penalties for professional misconduct……………………………………………………………………….90 Subarticle 4. – Unauthorized Acts §6512. §6513. §6514. §6515. §6516. Unauthorized practice a crime ……………………………………………………………………………... 90 Unauthorized use of a professional title a crime …………………………………………………………... 90 Criminal proceedings ………………………………………………………………………………………. 91 Restraint of unlawful acts …………………………………………………………………………………...91 Civil enforcement proceedings and civil penalties ………………………………………………………...91 Regents Rules Part 17 – Disciplinary Proceedings in the Professions §17.1 §17.2 §17.3 §17.4 §17.5 §17.6 §17.7 §17.8 §17.9 §24.1 §24.2 §24.3 §24.4 §24.5 §24.6 §24.7 §24.8 §24.9 Complaints or other information ……………………………………………………………………………92 Investigation ………………………………………………………………………………………………...92 Prosecution or settlement of disciplinary proceedings …………………………………………………….. 92 Reports……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 92 Consent orders ………………………………………………………………………………………………93 Surrender of license ………………………………………………………………………………………... 93 Violation of probation ………………………………………………………………………………………94 Hearing panel; administrative officers………………………………………………………………………94 Summary suspensions ………………………………………………………………………………….…...94 Membership ………………………………………………………………………………………………... 95 Purpose ……………………………………………………………………………………………………...95 Standards ………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..95 Review of appeals - education or experience ……………………………………………………………… 95 Review of appeals - license surrender and restoration ……………………………………………………...95 Review of questions of moral character …………………………………………………………………….95 Review in other cases ……………………………………………………………………………………….95 Unacceptable practice protocols …………………………………………………………………………… 96 Reconsideration ……………………………………………………………………………………………..96 Part 24 – Committee on the Professions Part 28 – Determination of good moral character in the professions §28.1 §28.2 §28.3 §28.4 §28.5 §28.6 §28.7 §28.8 §29.1 §29.2 §29.7 Determination of good moral character ……………………………………………………………………. 96 Information ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 96 Investigation ………………………………………………………………………………………………...96 Review ………………………………………………………………………………………………………96 Hearing ……………………………………………………………………………………………………...96 Appeal ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 97 Reapplication ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 97 Proficiency examination …………………………………………………………………………………… 97 General provisions …………………………………………………………………………………………. 97 General provisions for health professions …………………………………………………………………..98 Special provisions for the profession of pharmacy ……………..…………………………………………..100 Part 29 – Unprofessional Conduct Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 40 Commissioner’s Regulations Part 59 – General Provisions §59.1 §59.2 §59.3 §59.4 §59.5 §59.6 §59.7 §59.8 §59.9 §59.10 §59.11 §59.12 §59.13 Applicability ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. .. Education requirements ……………………………………………………………………………………. .. English proficiency requirement …………………………………………………………………………….. Citizenship or immigration status requirements ……………………………………………………….….… Professional examinations …………………………………………………………………………………. .. License by endorsement ……………………………………………………………………………………... Licenses and initial registrations …………………………………………………………………………….. Registration for professional practice ………………………………………………………………………. . Special service fees ………………………………………………………………………………………….. Professional service corporations …………………………………………………………………………... . Refunds ……………………………………………………………………………………………………... . Training regarding child abuse and maltreatment reporting ……………………………………………….... Training regarding infection control practices ……………………………………………………. ............... 103 103 103 103 103 105 105 105 106 106 106 106 107 Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 41 LAWS AND REGULATIONS SPECIFIC TO PHARMACY EDUCATION LAW Article 137 Pharmacy §6800. Introduction. This article applies to the profession of pharmacy. The general provisions for all professions contained in article one hundred thirty of this title apply to this article. §6801. Definition pharmacy. of practice of pharmacopeia, official homeopathic pharmacopeia of the United States, official national formulary, or their supplements. 7. "Drugs" means: a. Articles recognized in the official United States pharmacopeia, official homeopathic pharmacopeia of the United States, or official national formulary. b. Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in man or animals. c. Articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or animals. d. Articles intended for use as a component of any article specified in paragraphs a, b, or c; but does not include devices or their components, parts or accessories. 8. "Cosmetics" means: a. Articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled or sprayed on, introduced into or otherwise applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance. b. Articles intended for use as a component of any such articles; except that the term shall not include soap. 9. "Poison", where not otherwise limited, means any drug, chemical or preparation likely to be destructive to adult human life in quantity of sixty grains or less. 10. "Label" means a display of written, printed or pictorial matter upon the immediate container of any drug, device or cosmetic. Any requirement made by or under authority of this article, that any word, statement, or other information appear on the label shall not be considered to be complied with unless such word, statement or other information also appears on the outside container or wrapper, if there be any, of the retail package of such drug, device or cosmetic or is easily legible through the outside container or wrapper. 11. "Immediate container" does not include package liners. 12. "Labeling" means all labels and other written, printed or pictorial matter: a. Upon any drug, device or cosmetic or any of its containers or wrappers, or b. Accompanying such drug, device or cosmetic. 13. "Misbranding". If a drug, device or cosmetic is alleged to be misbranded because the labeling is misleading, or if an advertisement is alleged to be false because it is misleading then in determining whether the labeling or advertisement is misleading there shall be taken into account (among other things) not only representations made or suggested by statement, word, design, device, sound or any combination thereof, but also the extent to which the labeling fails to reveal facts material in the light of such representations or material with respect to consequences which may result from the use of the drug, device, or cosmetic to which the labeling or advertising relates under the conditions of use prescribed in the labeling or advertising thereof or under such conditions of use as are customary or usual. No drug, device or cosmetic which is subject to, and complies with regulations promulgated under the provisions of the federal food, drug, and cosmetic act, relating to adulteration and misbranding shall be The practice of the profession of pharmacy is defined as the preparing, compounding, preserving, or the dispensing of drugs, medicines and therapeutic devices on the basis of prescriptions or other legal authority. §6802. Definitions. 1. "Pharmacy" means any place, other than a registered store, in which drugs, prescriptions or poisons are possessed for the purpose of compounding, preserving, dispensing or retailing, or in which drugs, prescriptions or poisons are compounded, preserved, dispensed or retailed, or in which such drugs, prescriptions or poisons are by advertising or otherwise offered for sale at retail. 2. [Repealed] 3. "Formulary" means the latest edition of the official national formulary, and its supplement. 4. "Pharmacopeia", when not otherwise limited, means the latest edition of the official United States pharmacopeia, and its supplement. 5. "Homeopathic pharmacopeia" means the official homeopathic pharmacopeia of the United States, and its supplement. 6. "Official compendium" means official United States the Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 42 deemed to be adulterated or misbranded in violation of the provisions of this article because of its failure to comply with the board's regulations, or the rules of the state board of pharmacy, insofar as the regulations are in conflict with regulations relating to adulteration and misbranding under the federal food, drug and cosmetic act. 14. "Antiseptic". The representation of a drug, device or cosmetic in its labeling, as an antiseptic, shall be considered to be a representation that it is a germicide, except in the case of a drug purporting to be, or represented as, an antiseptic for inhibitory use as a wet dressing, ointment, dusting powder, or such other use as involves prolonged contact with the body. 15. "New drug" means: a. Any drug not generally recognized, among experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs, as safe and effective for use under the conditions prescribed, recommended or suggested by the drug's labeling, except that such a drug not so recognized shall not be deemed to be a "new drug" if at any time prior to September first, nineteen hundred thirtynine it was subject to the former federal food and drug act of June thirtieth, nineteen hundred six, as amended, and if at such time its labeling contained the same representations concerning the conditions of its use; b. Any drug, the composition of which is such that the drug, as a result of investigations to determine its safety and effectiveness for use under such conditions, has become recognized, but which has not otherwise than in such investigations been used to a material extent or for a material time under such conditions. 16. "Device" means instruments, apparatus, and contrivances, including their components, parts and accessories, intended: a. For use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or animals; or b. To affect the structure or any function of the body of man or animals. 17. The term "Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act" means the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of the United States of America, approved June twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred thirty-eight, officially cited as public document number seven hundred seventeen-seventy-fifth congress (chapter six hundred seventy-five-third session), and all its amendments now or hereafter enacted. 18. "Wholesaler" means a person who bottles, packs or purchases drugs, devices or cosmetics for the purpose of selling or reselling to pharmacies or to other channels as provided in this article. 19. "Advertisement" means all representations disseminated in any manner or by any means, other than by labeling, for the purpose of inducing, or which are likely to induce, directly or indirectly, the purchase of drugs, devices or cosmetics. 20. "Controlled substance" means any drug defined as a controlled substance by article thirty-three of the public health law. 21. "Manufacturer" means a person who compounds, mixes, prepares, produces, and bottles or packs drugs, cosmetics or devices for the purpose of distributing or selling to pharmacies or to other channels of distribution. §6803. Practice of pharmacy and use of title "pharmacist". Only a person licensed or otherwise authorized under this article shall practice pharmacy or use the title "pharmacist" or any derivative. §6804. State board of pharmacy. A state board of pharmacy shall be appointed by the regents on recommendation of the commissioner for the purpose of assisting the regents and the department on matters of professional licensing and professional conduct in accordance with section sixty-five hundred eight of this title. The board shall be composed of not less than nine pharmacists licensed in this state for at least five years. An executive secretary to the board shall be appointed by the regents on recommendation of the commissioner and shall be a pharmacist licensed in this state for at least five years. The board shall have power: a. To regulate the practice of pharmacy and the employment of interns and employees in pharmacies, b. To regulate and control the sale, distribution, character and standard of drugs, poisons, cosmetics, devices and new drugs, c. To employ inspectors and chemists, d. To prevent the sale or distribution of such drugs, poisons, cosmetics, devices and new drugs as do not conform to the provisions of this article or of the public health law, e. To investigate alleged violations of the provisions of this article, through its own investigative personnel or those of other agencies, to conduct hearings, to levy money penalties, and to bring alleged violations to the notice of the attorney general, and f. To issue limited permits or registrations. §6805. Requirements for a professional license. l. To qualify for a pharmacist's license, an applicant shall fulfill the following requirements: (1) Application: file an application with the department; (2) Education: have received an education, including a bachelor's or equivalent degree in pharmacy, in accordance with the commissioner's regulations; (3) Experience: have experience satisfactory to the board and in accordance with the commissioner's regulations; (4) Examination: pass an examination satisfactory to the board and in accordance with the commissioner's regulations; Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 43 (5) Age: be at least twenty-one years of age; (6) Citizenship or immigration status: be a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States; provided, however that the board of regents may grant a one-time waiver for a pharmacist who otherwise meets the requirements of this article and provided further that the board of regents may grant an extension of such three-year waiver of not more than one year; * NB effective until October 1, 2006 (7) Character: be of good moral character as determined by the department; and (8) Fees: pay a fee of one hundred seventy-five dollars to the department for admission to a department conducted examination and for an initial license, a fee of eighty-five dollars for each re-examination, a fee of one hundred fifteen dollars for an initial license for persons not requiring admission to a department conducted examination, and a fee of one hundred fifty-five dollars for each triennial registration period. 2. On or before April first, nineteen hundred seventy-two, any person who holds a valid license as "druggist" in this state shall make application and on the payment of fees specified in this title be licensed by the department as a pharmacist. Such person shall have all of the rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities of a pharmacist. §6806. Limited permits. 1. The department may issue a limited permit for employment as a "pharmacy intern" to: a. A student enrolled in the last two years of a registered program in pharmacy, or b. A graduate of a program in pharmacy which meets standards established by the commissioner's regulations who is engaged in meeting the experience requirements or whose application for initial licensure is pending with the department. 2. A pharmacy intern may, as determined by the commissioner's regulations, practice as a pharmacist under the immediate personal supervision of a licensed pharmacist. 3. A limited permit issued to a pharmacy intern shall have an expiration date of five years from the date of issue. Limited permits may be renewed once for a period not to exceed two years. 4. Fees. The fee for each limited permit issued to a pharmacy intern shall be seventy dollars. §6807. Exempt persons. 1. This article shall not be construed to affect or prevent: a. Unlicensed assistants from being employed in licensed pharmacies for purposes other than the practice of pharmacy; b. Any physician, dentist, veterinarian or other licensed health care provider legally authorized to prescribe drugs under this title who is not the owner of a pharmacy, or registered store, or who is not in the employ of such owner, from supplying his patients with such drugs as the physician, dentist, veterinarian or other licensed health care provider legally authorized to prescribe drugs under this title deems proper in connection with his practice, provided, however, that all such drugs shall be dispensed in a container labeled with the name and address of the dispenser and patient, directions for use, and date of delivery, and in addition, such drug shall bear a label containing the proprietary or brand name of the drug and, if applicable, the strength of the contents, unless the person issuing the prescription specifically states on the prescription in his own handwriting, that the name of the drug and the strength thereof should not appear on the label; provided further that if such drugs are controlled substances, they shall be dispensed pursuant to the requirements of article thirty-three of the public health law; c. Any merchant from selling proprietary medicines, except those which are poisonous, deleterious or habit forming, or materials and devices specifically exempted by regulations of the department or by the public health law; d. Any personnel in an institution of higher learning from using prescriptionrequired drugs on the premises for authorized research, experiments or instruction, in accordance with the department's regulations and, if such drugs are controlled substances, in accordance with title III of article thirty-three of the public health law; or e. The necessary and ordinary activities of manufacturers and wholesalers, subject to the provisions of article thirty-three of the public health law. 2. a. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph b of subdivision one of this section, no prescriber who is not the owner of a pharmacy, or registered store, or who is not in the employ of such owner, may dispense more than a seventy-two hour supply of drugs, except for: (1) persons practicing in hospitals as defined in section twenty-eight hundred one of the public health law; (2) the dispensing of drugs at no charge to their patients; (3) persons whose practices are situated ten miles or more from a registered pharmacy; (4) the dispensing of drugs in a clinic, infirmary or health service that is operated by or affiliated with a postsecondary institution; (5) persons licensed pursuant to article one hundred thirty-five of this title; (6) the dispensing of drugs in a medical emergency as defined in subdivision six of section sixty-eight hundred ten of this article; (7) the dispensing of drugs that are diluted, reconstituted or compounded by a prescriber; (8) the dispensing of allergenic extracts; or (9) the dispensing of drugs pursuant to an oncological or AIDS protocol. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 44 b. The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of health, may promulgate regulations to implement this subdivision and may, by regulation, establish additional renewable exemptions for a period not to exceed one year from the provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision. §6808. Registering and operating establishments. 1. No person, firm, corporation or association shall possess drugs, prescriptions or poisons for the purpose of compounding, dispensing, retailing, wholesaling, or manufacturing, or shall offer drugs, prescriptions or poisons for sale at retail or wholesale unless registered by the department as a pharmacy, store, wholesaler, or manufacturer. 2. Pharmacies. a. Obtaining a registration. A pharmacy shall be registered as follows: (1) The application shall be made on a form prescribed by the department. (2) The application shall be accompanied by a fee of three hundred forty-five dollars. (3) To secure and retain a registration, a pharmacy must be equipped with facilities, apparatus, utensils and stocks of drugs and medicines sufficient to permit the prompt and efficient compounding and dispensing of prescriptions, as prescribed by regulation. b. Renewal of registration. All pharmacy registrations shall be renewed on dates set by the department. The triennial registration fee shall be two hundred sixty dollars or a pro rated portion thereof as determined by the department At the time of renewal, the owner of every pharmacy shall report under oath to the department any facts required by the board of pharmacy. c. Display of registration. The registration shall be conspicuously displayed at all times in the pharmacy. The names of the owner or owners of a pharmacy shall be conspicuously displayed upon the exterior of such establishment. The names so displayed shall be presumptive evidence of ownership of such pharmacy by such person or persons. In the event that the owner of a licensed pharmacy is not a licensed pharmacist, the pharmacy registration issued shall also bear the name of the licensed pharmacist having personal supervision of the pharmacy. In the event that such licensed pharmacist shall no longer have personal supervision of the pharmacy, the owner shall notify the department of such fact and of the name of the licensed pharmacist replacing the pharmacist named on the license and shall apply for an amended registration showing the change. The amended registration must be attached to the original registration and displayed in the same manner. Both the owner and the supervising pharmacist shall be responsible for carrying out the provisions of this article. d. Change of location. In the event that the location of a pharmacy shall be changed, the owner shall apply to the department for inspection of the new location and endorsement of the registration for the new location. The fee for inspection and endorsement shall be fifty dollars, unless it appears to the satisfaction of the department that the change in location is of temporary nature due to fire, flood or other disaster. e. Conduct of a pharmacy. Every owner of a pharmacy is responsible for the strength, quality, purity and the labeling thereof of all drugs, toxic substances, devices and cosmetics, dispensed or sold, subject to the guaranty provisions of this article and the public health law. Every owner of a pharmacy or every pharmacist in charge of a pharmacy shall be responsible for the proper conduct of this pharmacy. Every pharmacy shall be under the immediate supervision and management of a licensed pharmacist at all hours when open. No pharmacist shall have personal supervision of more than one pharmacy at the same time. f. A pharmacy as a department. When a pharmacy is operated as a department of a larger commercial establishment, the area comprising the pharmacy shall be physically separated from the rest of the establishment, so that access to the pharmacy and drugs is not available when a pharmacist is not on duty. Identification of the area within the pharmacy by use of the words "drugs", "medicines", "drug store", or "pharmacy" or similar terms shall be restricted to the area licensed by the department as a pharmacy. g. Limited pharmacy registration. (1) When, in the opinion of the department, a high standard of patient safety, consistent with good patient care, can be provided by the registering of a pharmacy within a hospital, nursing home or extended care facility which does not meet all of the requirements for registration as a pharmacy, the department may waive any requirements pertaining to full-time operation by a licensed pharmacist, minimum equipment, minimum space and waiting area, provided that when the waiver of any of the above requirements is granted by the board, the pharmaceutical services to be rendered by the pharmacy shall be limited to furnishing drugs to patients registered for treatment by the hospital, and to in-patients for treatment by the nursing home or extended care facility. (2) When in the opinion of the department, a high standard of patient safety, consistent with good patient care, can be provided by the registering of a pharmacy within a facility distributing dialysis solutions for patients suffering from end stage renal disease and where the pharmaceutical services to be rendered by the pharmacy shall be limited to furnishing dialysis solutions to patients for whom such has been prescribed by a duly authorized prescriber, the department may waive certain requirements, including, but not limited to, full-time operation by a licensed pharmacist, minimum equipment, and minimum space and waiting area. Such solutions shall only be dispensed by employees who have completed an approved training program and who have demonstrated proficiency to perform the task or tasks of assemblying, labeling or delivering a patient order and who work under the general supervision of a licensed pharmacist who shall be responsible for the distribution, record keeping, labeling and delivery of all dialysis solutions dispensed by the distributor as required by the department. (3) The department shall promulgate such rules or regulations consistent with this paragraph as are Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 45 necessary to ensure the safe distribution of such dialysis solution, including establishment registration and proper record keeping, storage, and labeling. (4) The initial registration fee and renewal fee for a limited pharmacy shall be three hundred forty-five dollars for each triennial registration period. h. Applicant registration. An applicant for registration as a pharmacy shall be of good moral character, as determined by the department. In the case of a corporate applicant, the requirement shall extend to all officers and directors and to stockholders having a ten percent or greater interest in the corporation. 3. [Repealed] 4. Wholesaler's or manufacturer's registration. a. Obtaining a registration. wholesaler or manufacturer shall registered as follows: A be a temporary nature due to fire, flood or other disaster. 5. Inspection. The state board of pharmacy and the department of education, and their employees designated by the commissioner, shall have the right to enter any pharmacy, wholesaler, manufacturer, or registered store, or vehicle and to inspect, at reasonable times, such factory, warehouse, establishment or vehicle and all records required by this article, pertinent equipment, finished and unfinished materials, containers, and labels. 6. Revocation or suspension. A pharmacy, store, wholesaler or manufacturer registration may be revoked or suspended by the committee on professional conduct of the state board of pharmacy in accordance with the provisions of article one hundred thirty. 7. Sale of drugs at auction. No controlled substance or substances and no poisonous or deleterious drugs or drugs in bulk or in opened containers shall be sold at auction unless the place where such drugs are sold at auction shall have been registered by the board, and unless such sale shall be under the personal supervision of a licensed pharmacist. Drugs in open containers shall not be sold at auction unless the seller shall have in his possession a certificate of the board showing that such drugs have been inspected and meet the requirements of this article. In the event that the drug so sold is one as to which this article or any federal statute or any regulation adopted pursuant to this article or an applicable federal statute require that the expiration date be stated on each package, such drug may not be sold at auction after such expiration date or when such expiration date will occur within a period of thirty days or less from the date of sale. §6808-a. Identification of Pharmacists. Every pharmacist on duty shall be identified by a badge designed by the state board of pharmacy, which shall contain his name and title. §6808-b. Registration of nonresident establishments. 1. Definition. The term "nonresident establishment" shall mean any pharmacy, manufacturer or wholesaler located outside of the state that ships, mails or delivers prescription drugs or devices to other establishments, authorized prescribers and/or patients residing in this state. Such establishments shall include, but not be limited to, pharmacies that transact business through the use of the internet. 2. Registration. All nonresident establishments that ship, mail, or deliver prescription drugs and/or devices to other registered establishments, authorized prescribers, and/or patients into this state shall be registered with the department; except that such registration shall not apply to intra-company transfers between any division, affiliate, subsidiaries, parent or other entities under complete common ownership and control. The provisions of this subdivision shall apply solely to nonresident establishments and shall not affect any other provision of this article. 3. Agent of record. Each nonresident establishment that ships, mails or delivers drugs and/or devices into this state shall designate a resident agent in this state for service of process pursuant to rule three hundred eighteen of the civil practice law and rules. 4. Conditions of registration. As a condition of registration, a nonresident establishment shall comply with the following requirements: a. Be licensed and/or registered and in good standing with the state of residence; b. Maintain, in readily retrievable form, records of drugs and/or devices shipped into this state; c. Supply, upon request, all information needed by the department to carry out the department`s responsibilities under the laws and rules and regulations pertaining to nonresident establishments; d. Comply with all statutory and regulatory requirements of the state where the nonresident establishment is located, for prescription drugs or devices shipped, mailed or delivered into this state, except that for controlled substances shipped, mailed (1) The application shall be made on a form prescribed by the department. (2) The application shall be accompanied by a fee of eight hundred twenty-five dollars. b. Renewal of registration. All wholesalers' and manufacturers' registrations shall be renewed on dates set by the department. The triennial registration fee shall be five hundred twenty dollars or a pro rated portion thereof as determined by the department c. Display of registration. The registration shall be displayed conspicuously at all times in the place of business. d. Change of location. In the event that the location of such place of business shall be changed, the owner shall apply to the department for inspection of the new location and endorsement of the registration for the new location. The fee for inspection and endorsement shall be one hundred seventy dollars, unless it appears to the satisfaction of the department that the change in location is of Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 46 or delivered into this state, the nonresident pharmacy shall follow federal law and New York law relating to controlled substances; e. The application shall be made in the manner and form prescribed by the department; f. The application of establishments to be registered as a manufacturer or wholesaler of drugs and/or devices shall be accompanied by a fee as provided in section sixty-eight hundred eight of this article; and g. The application of establishments to be registered as a nonresident pharmacy shall be accompanied by a fee of three hundred forty-five dollars and shall be renewed triennially at a fee of two hundred sixty dollars. 5. Additional requirements. Nonresident pharmacies registered pursuant to this section shall: a. Provide a toll-free telephone number that is available during normal business hours and at least forty hours per week, to enable communication between a patient in this state and a pharmacist at the pharmacy who has access to the patient`s records; and b. Place such toll-free telephone number on a label affixed to each drug or device container. 6. Disciplinary action. Except in emergencies that constitute an immediate threat to public health, the department shall not prosecute a complaint or otherwise take formal action against a nonresident establishment based upon delivery of a drug into this state or a violation of law, rule, or regulation of this state if the agency having jurisdiction in the state where the nonresident establishment is based commences action on the violation complained of within one hundred twenty days from the date that the violation was reported; provided however, that the department may prosecute a complaint or take formal action against a nonresident establishment if it determines that the agency having jurisdiction in the state where the nonresident establishment is based has unreasonably delayed or otherwise failed to take prompt and appropriate action on a reported violation. 7. Revocation or suspension. A nonresident establishment that fails to comply with the requirements of this section shall be subject to revocation or suspension of its registration and other applicable penalties in accordance with the provisions of article one hundred thirty of this chapter. 8. Exception. The department may grant an exception from the registration requirements of this section on the application of a nonresident establishment that restricts its sale or dispensing of drugs and/or devices to residents of this state to isolated transactions. 9. Rules and regulations. The department shall promulgate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this section. §6810. Prescriptions. 1. No drug for which a prescription is required by the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act or by the commissioner of health shall be distributed or dispensed to any person except upon a prescription written by a person legally authorized to issue such prescription. Such drug shall be compounded or dispensed by a licensed pharmacist, and no such drug shall be dispensed without affixing to the immediate container in which the drug is sold or dispensed a label bearing the name and address of the owner of the establishment in which it was dispensed, the date compounded, the number of the prescription under which it is recorded in the pharmacist's prescription files, the name of the prescriber, the name and address of the patient, and the directions for the use of the drug by the patient as given upon the prescription. The prescribing and dispensing of a drug which is a controlled substance shall be subject to additional requirements provided in article thirty-three of the public health law. The words "drug" and "prescription required drug" within the meaning of this article shall not be construed to include soft or hard contact lenses, eyeglasses, or any other device for the aid or correction of vision. Nothing in this subdivision shall prevent a pharmacy from furnishing a drug to another pharmacy which does not have such drug in stock for the purpose of filling a prescription. 2. A prescription may not be refilled unless it bears a contrary instruction and indicates on its face the number of times it may be refilled. A prescription may not be refilled more times than allowed on the prescription. The date of each refilling must be indicated on the original prescription. Prescriptions for controlled substances shall be refilled only pursuant to article thirty-three of the public health law. 3. A copy of a prescription for a controlled substance shall not be furnished to the patient but may be furnished to any licensed practitioner authorized to write such prescription. Copies of other prescriptions shall be furnished to the patient at his request, but such copies are issued for the informational purposes of the prescribers only, and shall be so worded. 4. (a) Oral prescriptions for controlled substances shall be filled pursuant to article thirty-three of the public health law. A pharmacist may fill an oral prescription for a drug, other than a controlled substance, made by a practitioner legally authorized to prescribe drugs. An oral authorization for the refill of a prescription, other than a prescription for a controlled substance, may be made by a practitioner legally authorized to prescribe drugs. The pharmacist receiving such oral authorization for the refill of a prescription shall write on the reverse side of the original prescription the date, time, and name of he practitioner authorizing the refill of the prescription. An oral prescription or an oral authorization for the refill of a prescription for the drug, other than a controlled substance, may be communicated by an employee of the prescribing practitioner; provided however the pharmacist shall: (i) contemporaneously reduce such prescription to writing; (ii) dispense the substance in conformity with the labeling requirements applicable to a written prescription; and (iii) make a good faith effort to verify the employee's identity if the Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 47 employee is pharmacist. unknown to the (b) Oral prescriptions for patients in general hospitals, nursing homes, residential health care facilities as defined in section twenty-eight hundred one of the public health law, hospitals as defined in subdivision ten of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law, or developmental centers or developmental disabilities services offices listed in subdivision (b) of section 13.17 of the mental hygiene law, may be communicated to by a pharmacist serving as a vendor of pharmaceutical services based upon a contractual arrangement by an agent designated by and under the direction of the prescriber or the institution. Such agent shall be a health care practitioner currently licensed and registered under this title. 5. Records of all prescriptions filled or refilled shall be maintained for a period of at least five years and upon request made available for inspection and copying by a representative of the department. Such records shall indicate date of filling or refilling, doctor's name, patient's name and address and the name or initials of the pharmacist who prepared, compounded, or dispensed the prescription. Records of prescriptions for controlled substances shall be maintained pursuant to requirements of article thirty-three of the public health law. 6. (a) Every prescription written in this state by a person authorized to issue such prescription shall be on prescription forms containing one line for the prescriber's signature. The prescriber's signature shall validate the prescription. Imprinted conspicuously in eight point upper case type immediately below the signature line shall be the words: "THIS PRESCRIPTION WILL BE FILLED GENERICALLY UNLESS PRESCRIBER WRITES 'd a w' IN THE BOX BELOW". Unless the prescriber writes d a w in such box in the prescriber's own handwriting, the prescriber's signature shall designate approval of substitution by a pharmacist of a drug product pursuant to paragraph (o) of subdivision one of section two hundred six of the public health law. No other letters or marks in such box shall prohibit substitution. No prescription forms used or intended to be used by a person authorized to issue a prescription shall have 'd a w' preprinted in such box. Such box shall be placed directly under the signature line and shall be three-quarters inch in length and one-half inch in height. Immediately below such box shall be imprinted in six point type the words "Dispense As Written". Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no state official, agency, board or other entity shall promulgate any regulation or guideline modifying those elements of the prescription form's contents specified in this subdivision. To the extent otherwise permitted by law, a prescriber may modify only those elements of the prescription form's contents not specified in this subdivision. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section or any other law, when a generic drug is not available and the brand name drug originally prescribed is available and the pharmacist agrees to dispense the brand name product for a price that will not exceed the price that would have been charged for the generic substitute had it been available, substitution of a generic drug product will not be required. If the generic drug product is not available and a medical emergency situation, which for purposes of this section is defined as any condition requiring alleviation of severe pain or which threatens to cause disability or take life if not promptly treated, exists, then the pharmacist may dispense the brand name product at his regular price. In such instances the pharmacist must record the date, hour and nature of the medical emergency on the back of the prescription and keep a copy of all such prescriptions. (b) The prescriber shall inform the patient whether he or she has prescribed a brand name or its generic equivalent drug product. (c) The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to a hospital as defined in article twenty-eight of the public health law. (d) No prescriber shall be subjected to civil liability arising solely from authorizing, in accordance with this subdivision, the substitution by a pharmacist of a drug product pursuant to paragraph (o) of subdivision one of section two hundred six of the public health law. 7. (a) No prescription for a drug written in this state by a person authorized to issue such prescription shall be on a prescription form which authorizes the dispensing or compounding of any other drug. (b) With respect to drugs other than controlled substances, the provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to pharmacists employed by or providing services under contract to general hospitals, nursing homes, residential health care facilities as defined in section twentyeight hundred one of the public health law, hospitals as defined in subdivision ten of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law, or developmental centers or developmental disabilities services offices listed in subdivision (b) of section 13.17 of the mental hygiene law, who dispense drugs in the course of said employment or in the course of providing such services under contract. With respect to such pharmacists, each prescription shall be transcribed on a patient specific prescription form. 8. Every prescription (whether or not for a controlled substance) written in this state by a person authorized to issue such prescription and containing the prescriber's signature shall, in addition to such signature, be imprinted or stamped legibly and conspicuously with the printed name of the prescriber who has signed the prescription. The imprinted or stamped name of the signing prescriber shall appear in an appropriate location on the prescription form and shall not be entered in or upon any space or line reserved for the prescriber's signature. The imprinted or stamped name shall not be employed as a substitute for, or fulfill any legal requirement otherwise mandating that the prescription be signed by the prescriber. 9. No person, corporation, association or other entity, not licensed to issue a prescription pursuant to this title, shall wilfully cause prescription forms, blanks or facsimiles thereof to be disseminated to any person other than a person who is licensed to issue a prescription pursuant to this title. A violation of this subdivision shall be a class B misdemeanor punishable in Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 48 accordance with the provisions of the penal law. §6811. Misdemeanors. It shall be a class A misdemeanor for: 1. Any person knowingly or intentionally to prevent or refuse to permit any board member or department representative to enter a pharmacy or any other establishment for the purpose of lawful inspection; 2. Any person whose license has been revoked to refuse to deliver the license; 3. Any pharmacist to display his license or permit it to be displayed in a pharmacy of which he is not the owner or in which he is not employed, or any owner to fail to display in his pharmacy the license of the pharmacist employed in said pharmacy; 4. Any holder of a license to fail to display the license; 5. Any owner of a pharmacy to display or permit to be displayed in his pharmacy the license of any pharmacist not employed in said pharmacy; 6. Any person to carry on, conduct or transact business under a name which contains as a part thereof the words "drugs", "medicines", "drugstore", "apothecary", or "pharmacy", or similar terms or combination of terms, or in any manner by advertisement, circular, poster, sign or otherwise describe or refer to the place of business conducted by such person, or describe the type of service or class of products sold by such person, by the terms "drugs", "medicine", "drug store", "apothecary", or "pharmacy", unless the place of business so conducted is a pharmacy licensed by the department; 7. Any person to enter into an agreement with a physician, dentist, podiatrist or veterinarian for the compounding or dispensing of secret formula (coded) prescriptions; 8. Any person to sell or distribute any instrument or article, or any recipe, drug or medicine for the prevention of conception to a minor under the age of sixteen years; the sale or distribution of such to a person other than a minor under the age of sixteen years is authorized only by a licensed pharmacist but the advertisement or display of said articles, within or without the premises of such pharmacy is hereby prohibited; Injunction Injunctive relief against enforcement of subd. 8 of this section which prohibited distribution of contraceptives to persons under the age of 16, which prohibited distribution of contraceptives to any other persons by persons other than pharmacists, and which prohibited any display or advertisement of contraceptives was appropriate. Population Services Intern. V. Wilson, D.C.N.Y. 1975, 398 F. Supp. 321, 97 S.Ct. 2010, 431 U.S. 678, 52 L.Ed.2d 675. 9. Any person to manufacture, sell, deliver for sale, hold for sale or offer for sale of any drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded; 10. Any person to adulterate or misbrand any drug, device or cosmetic; 11. Any person to receive in commerce any drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded, and to deliver or proffer delivery thereof for pay or otherwise; 12. Any person to sell, deliver for sale, hold for sale, or offer for sale any drug, device or cosmetic in violation of this article; 13. Any person to disseminate any false advertisement; 14. Any person to refuse to permit entry or inspection as authorized by this article; 15. Any person to forge, counterfeit, simulate, or falsely represent, or without proper authority using any mark, stamp, tag, label or other identification device authorized or required by rules and regulations promulgated under the provisions of this article; 16. Any person to use for his own advantage, or reveal, other than to the commissioner or his duly authorized representative, or to the courts when relevant in any judicial proceedings under this article, any information acquired under authority of this article or concerning any method or process, which is a trade secret; 17. Any person to alter, mutilate, destroy, obliterate or remove the whole or any part of the labeling of, or the doing of any other act with respect to a drug, device, or cosmetic, if such act is done while such article is held for sale and results in such article being misbranded; 18. Any person to use on the labeling of any drug or in any advertising relating to such drug any representation or suggestion that an application with respect to such drug is effective under section sixty-eight hundred seventeen of this chapter or that such is in compliance with the provisions of such section; 19. Any person to violate any of the provisions of section sixty-eight hundred ten of this article; 20. Any person to violate any of the provisions of section sixty-eight hundred sixteen of this article; 21. Any person, to sell at retail or give away in tablet form bichloride of mercury, mercuric chloride or corrosive sublimate, unless such bichloride of mercury, mercuric chloride or corrosive sublimate, when so sold, or given away, shall conform to the provisions of national formulary XII. Nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to prohibit the sale and dispensing of bichloride of mercury in any form, shape, or color, when combined or compounded with one or more other drugs or excipients, for the purposes of internal medication only, or when sold in bulk in powder form, or to any preparation containing one-tenth of a grain or less of bichloride of mercury; 22. Any pharmacy to fail to properly post the list required by section sixty-eight hundred twenty-six of this article; 23. Any pharmacy to change its current selling price without changing Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 49 the listed price as provided by section sixty-eight hundred twenty-six of this article; 24. Any person to refuse to permit access to or copying of any record as required by this article; or 25. Any manufacturer to sell or offer for sale any drug not manufactured, prepared or compounded under the personal supervision of a chemist or licensed pharmacist or not labeled with the full name of the manufacturer or seller. §6811-a. Certain drugs to be clearly marked or labeled. 1. No drug for which a prescription is required by the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act or by the commissioner of health may be manufactured or commercially distributed within this state in tablet or capsule form unless it has clearly marked or imprinted on each such tablet or capsule in conformance with the applicable plan required by subdivision three of this section: (a) an individual symbol, number, company name, words, letters, marking or National Drug Code (hereinafter referred to as N. D. C.) number identifying the manufacturer or distributor of the drug; and (b) an N. D. C. number, symbol, number, letters, words or marking identifying such drug or combination of drugs. 2. No drug for which any prescription is required by the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act or by the commissioner of health contained within a bottle, vial, carton or other container, or in any way affixed or appended to or enclosed within a package of any kind, and designed or intended for delivery in such container or package to an ultimate consumer, shall be manufactured or distributed within this state unless such container or package has clearly and permanently marked or imprinted upon it in conformance with the applicable plan required by subdivision three of this section: (a) an individual symbol, N. D. C. number, company name, number, letters, words or marking identifying the manufacturer or distributor of the drug; (b) an N. D. C. number, symbol, number, letters, words or marking identifying such drug or combination of drugs; and (c) whenever the distributor of the prescription drug product does not also manufacture the product the names and places of business of both shall appear on the label in words clearly distinguishing each. 3. (a) Each manufacturer and distributor shall prepare and submit to the commissioner of health a proposed plan of the manufacturer or distributor, as the case may be, to have its products comply with the marking and labeling requirements of this section. (b) Such plan shall be in writing and shall give the respective dates by which the various products manufactured or distributed will each contain the required mark or label. The plan shall state the reasons why the projected date of compliance has been proposed and such other information deemed relevant or that the commissioner of health shall require. (c) The commissioner may either approve the plan as proposed or, after consultation with the manufacturer or distributor, require an amendment or the commissioner may promulgate a plan for the manufacturer or distributor. No plan or amendment to the plan shall be effective until approved or promulgated by the commissioner of health upon a finding by him that the time limitations provided for therein are reasonable and will best carry out the intendment of this section. 4. Each manufacturer and/or distributor shall publish and make available, upon request, to the department of education, to each physician, dentist, pharmacy, hospital or other institution wherein such drugs may be used, a printed material which will identify each imprint used by the manufacturer or distributor. Updated materials shall be provided as changes occur, upon the filing of an annual request. The provisions of this subdivision shall be deemed to be complied with when a prescription drug product is included in the Physician's Desk Reference. 5. Every person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of this section for any prescription drug product shall be guilty of an offense punishable by a fine of not less than twenty-five hundred dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars. Any prescription drug product prepared or manufactured in violation of this section shall be contraband and subject to seizure either by the state board of pharmacy or by any law enforcement officer of the state. 6. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any tablet or capsule which contains a controlled substance as that term is defined by article thirtythree of the public health law or which is prepared or manufactured by a pharmacist duly licensed by the state which is made by him for the purpose of retail sale from his principal place of business and not intended for resale. 7. The commissioner of health may exempt a particular tablet or capsule from the requirements of this section, upon application by a manufacturer, on the grounds that labeling such a tablet or capsule is unfeasible because of size or texture or other unique characteristics. 8. (a) As used in this section, the term "distributor" means the person, firm, corporation or other entity which is not the actual manufacturer of a prescription drug product but which distributes such product for resale under the label of such person, firm, corporation or entity. (b) For purposes of subdivision four "drug product" means the entire supply of the finished dosage form of the drug. §6811-b. Door-to-door distribution of drugs prohibited. It shall be a violation, punishable by a fine not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars, for a manufacturer, distributor, or seller of drugs or an employee or agent thereof to distribute a free sample of any drug, other than a cosmetic not intended for ingestion, to any residential dwelling unless the sample is given directly to a Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 50 person who is, or reasonably appears to be, over the age of eighteen. This section shall not be construed to permit distribution where otherwise prohibited by this chapter or any other law. §6812. Special provisions. 1. Where any pharmacy registered by the department is damaged by fire the board shall be notified within a period of forty-eight hours, and the board shall have power to impound all drugs for analysis and condemnation, if found unfit for use. Where a pharmacy is discontinued, the owner of its prescription records shall notify the department as to the disposition of said prescription records, and in no case shall records be sold or given away to a person who does not currently possess a registration to operate a pharmacy. 2. Nothing in this article shall be construed as requiring the prosecution or the institution of injunction proceedings for minor violations of this article whenever the public interest will be adequately served by a suitable written notice of warning. 3. The executive secretary of the state board of pharmacy is authorized to conduct examinations and investigations for the purposes of this article through officers and employees of the United States, or through any health, food, or drug officer or employee of any city, county or other political subdivision of this state. §6813. Seizure. 1. Any drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated, misbranded or may not be sold under the provisions of this chapter, may be seized on petition or complaint of the board and condemned in the supreme court of any county in which it is found. Seizure shall be made: a. by process pursuant to the petition or complaint, or b. if the secretary or other officer designated by him has probable cause to believe that the article (1) is one which may not be sold under the provisions of section sixty- eight hundred chapter, or seventeen of this (2) is adulterated, or (3) is so misbranded as to be dangerous to health. The article shall be seized by order of such officer. The order shall describe the article to be seized, the place where the article is located, and the officer or employee making the seizure. The officer, in lieu of taking actual possession, may affix a tag or other appropriate marking to the article giving notice that the article has been quarantined and warning all persons not to remove or dispose of it by sale or otherwise until permission for removal or disposal is given by the officer or the court. In case of seizures or quarantine, pursuant to such order, the jurisdiction of such court shall attach upon such seizure or quarantine, and a petition or complaint for condemnation shall be filed promptly. 2. The procedure for cases under this section shall conform as much as possible to the procedure for attachment. Any issue of fact joined in any case under this section shall be tried by jury on the demand of either party. The court at any time after seizure and up to the time of trial shall allow by order any party or his agent or attorney to obtain a representative sample of the condemned material, a true copy of the analysis on which the proceeding was based, and the identifying marks or numbers, if any, on the packages from which the samples analyzed were obtained. 3. Any drug, device or cosmetic condemned under this section shall be disposed of by destruction or sale as the court may direct after the decree in accordance with the provisions of this section. The proceeds of the sale, if any, shall be paid into the state treasury after deduction for legal costs and charges. However, the drug, device or cosmetic shall not be sold contrary to the provisions of this article. After entry of the decree, if the owner of the condemned articles pays the costs of the proceeding and posts a sufficient bond as security that the articles will not be disposed of contrary to the provisions of this article, the court may by order direct that the seized articles be delivered to the owner to be destroyed or brought into conformance with this article under supervision of the secretary. The expenses of the supervision shall be borne by the person obtaining the release under bond. Any drug condemned by reason of its being a new drug which may not be sold under this article shall be disposed of by destruction. 4. When the decree of condemnation is entered, court costs and fees, storage and other expense shall be awarded against the person, if any, intervening as claimant of the condemned articles. 5. In any proceeding against the board, or the secretary, or an agent of either, because of seizure, or quarantine, under this section, the board, or the secretary, or such agent shall not be liable if the court finds that there was probable cause for the acts done by them. §6814. Records of shipment. For the purpose of enforcing provisions of this article, carriers engaged in commerce, and persons receiving drugs, devices or cosmetics in commerce or holding such articles so received, shall, upon the request of an officer duly assigned by the secretary, permit such officer, at reasonable times, to have access to and to copy all records showing the movement in commerce of any drug, device or cosmetic, or the holding thereof during or after such movement, and the quantity, shipper, and consignee thereof: and it shall be unlawful for any such carrier or person to fail to permit such access to and copying of any such record so requested when such request is accompanied by a statement in writing specifying the nature or kind of drug, device or cosmetic to which such request relates: Provided, that evidence obtained under this section shall not be used in a criminal prosecution of the person from whom obtained: Provided further, that carriers shall not be subject to the other provisions of this article by reason of their receipt, carriage, holding or delivery of drugs, devices or cosmetics in the usual course of business as carriers. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 51 §6815. Adulterating, misbranding and substituting. 1. Adultered drugs. A drug or device shall be deemed to be adulterated: a. (1) If it consists in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance; or (2) if it has been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have been contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health; or (3) if it is a drug and its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health; or (4) if it is a drug and it bears or contains, for purposes of coloring only, a coal-tar color other than one from a batch that has been certified in accordance with regulations provided in this article. b. If it purports to be, or is represented as, a drug the name of which is recognized in an official compendium, and its strength differs from, or its quality or purity falls below, the standard set forth in such compendium. Such determination as to strength, quality or purity shall be made in accordance with the tests or methods of assay set forth in such compendium, or, in the absence or inadequacy of such tests or methods of assay, then in accordance with tests or methods of assay prescribed by regulations of the board of pharmacy as promulgated under this article. Deviations from the official assays may be made in the quantities of samples and reagents employed, provided they are in proportion to the quantities stated in the official compendium. No drug defined in an official compendium shall be deemed to be adulterated under this paragraph because (1) it exceeds the standard of strength therefor set forth in such compendium, if such difference is plainly stated on its label; or (2) it falls below the standard of strength, quality, or purity therefor set forth in such compendium if such difference is plainly stated on its label, except that this clause shall apply only to such drugs, or classes of drugs, as are specified in regulations which the board shall promulgate when, as applied to any drug, or class of drugs, the prohibition of such difference is not necessary for the protection of the public health. Whenever a drug is recognized in both the United States pharmacopoeia and the homeopathic pharmacopoeia of the United States, it shall be subject to the requirements of the United States pharmacopoeia unless it is labeled and offered for sale as a homeopathic drug, in which case it shall be subject to the provisions of the homeopathic pharmacopoeia of the United States and not to those of the United States pharmacopoeia. c. If it is not subject to the provisions of paragraph b of this subdivision and its strength differs from, or its purity or quality falls below, that which it purports or is represented to possess. d. If it is a drug and any substance has been (1) mixed or packed therewith so as to reduce its quality or strength or (2) substituted wholly or in part therefor. e. If it is sold under or by a name not recognized in or according to a formula not given in the United States pharmacopoeia or the national formulary but that is found in some other standard work on pharmacology recognized by the board, and it differs in strength, quality or purity from the strength, quality or purity required, or the formula prescribed in, the standard work. 2. Misbranded and substituted drugs and devices. A drug or device shall be deemed to be misbranded: a. If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular. b. If in package form, unless it bears a label containing (1) the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor; and (2) an accurate statement of the quantity of the contents in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count: Provided, that under clause (2) of this paragraph the board may establish reasonable variations as to quantity and exemptions as to small packages. c. If any word, statement, or other information required by or under authority of this article to appear on the label or labeling is not prominently placed thereon with such conspicuousness (as compared with other words, statements, designs, or devices, in the labeling) and in such terms as to render it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use. d. If it is for use by man and contains any quantity of the narcotic or hypnotic substance alpha eucaine, barbituric acid, beta eucaine, bromal, cannabis, carbromal, chloral, coca, cocaine, codeine, heroin, marihuana, morphine, opium, paraldehyde, peyote, or sulphonmethane; or any chemical derivative of such substance, which derivative has been by the secretary, after investigation, found to be, and by regulations under this article, or by regulations promulgated by the board, designated as, habit forming; unless its label bears the name and quantity, or proportion, of such substance or derivative and in juxtaposition therewith the statement "Warning--May be habit forming." e. If it is a drug and is not designated solely by a name recognized in an official compendium unless its label bears (1) the common or usual name of the drug, if such there be; and (2) in case it is fabricated from two or more ingredients, the common or usual name of each active ingredient, including the kind and quantity by percentage or amount of any alcohol, and also including, whether active or not, the name and quantity or proportion of any bromides, ether, chloroform, acetanilid, acetphenetidin, amidopyrine, antipyrine, atropine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine, arsenic, digitalis, digitalis glucosides, mercury, ouabain, strophanthin, strychnine, thyroid, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances, contained therein: Provided, that, to the extent that compliance with the requirements of clause (2) of this paragraph is impracticable, exemptions shall be established by regulations promulgated by the board. f. Unless its labeling bears (1) adequate directions for use; and (2) such adequate warnings against use in those pathological conditions orby children where its use may be dangerous to health, or against unsafe dosage or methods or duration of administration or application, in such manner and form, as are necessary for the protection of users: Provided, that, where any requirement of clause (1) of this paragraph, as applied to any drug or device, is not necessary for the protection of the public health, the board shall promulgate regulations exempting such drug or device from such requirement. g. If it purports to be a drug the name of which is recognized in an official compendium, unless it is packaged and labeled as prescribed therein: Provided, Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 52 that, the method of packing may be modified with the consent of the secretary in accordance with regulations promulgated by the board. Whenever a drug is recognized in both the United States pharmacopoeia and the homeopathic pharmacopoeia of the United States, it shall be subject to the requirements of the United States pharmacopoeia with respect to packaging and labeling unless it is labeled and offered for sale as a homeopathic drug, in which case it shall be subject to the provisions of the homeopathic pharmacopoeia of the United States, and not to those of the United States pharmacopoeia. h. (1) If it is a drug and its container is so made, formed or filled as to be misleading; (2) if it is an imitation of another drug; (3) if it is offered for sale under the name of another drug; or (4) if it bears a copy, counterfeit, or colorable imitation of the trademark, label, container or identifying name or design of another drug. i. If it is dangerous to health when used in the dosage, or with the frequency or duration prescribed, recommended or suggested in the labeling thereof. j. Except as required by article thirtythree of the public health law, the labeling provisions of this article shall not apply to the compounding and dispensing of drugs on the written prescription of a physician, a dentist, a podiatrist or a veterinarian, which prescription when filled shall be kept on file for at least five years by the pharmacist or druggist. Such drug shall bear a label containing the name and place of business of the dispenser, the serial number and date of the prescription, directions for use as may be stated in the prescription, name and address of the patient and the name of the physician or other practitioner authorized by law to issue the prescription. In addition, such label shall contain the proprietary or brand name of the drug and, if applicable, the strength of the contents, unless the person issuing the prescription explicitly states on the prescription, in his own handwriting, that the name of the drug and the strength thereof should not appear on the label. §6816. Omitting to label drugs, or labeling them wrongly. 1. a. Any person, who, in putting up any drug, medicine, or food or preparation used in medical practice, or making up any prescription, or filling any order for drugs, medicines, food or preparation puts any untrue label, stamp or other designation of contents upon any box, bottle or other package containing a drug, medicine, food or preparation used in medical practice, or substitutes or dispenses a different article for or in lieu of any article prescribed, ordered, or demanded, except where required pursuant to section sixty-eight hundred sixteen-a of this article, or puts up a greater or lesser quantity of any ingredient specified in any such prescription, order or demand than that prescribed, ordered or demanded, except where required pursuant to paragraph (g) of subdivision two of section three hundred sixty-five-a of the social services law, or otherwise deviates from the terms of the prescription, order or demand by substituting one drug for another, except where required pursuant to section sixty-eight hundred sixteen-a of this article, is guilty of a misdemeanor; provided, however, that except in the case of physicians' prescriptions, nothing herein contained shall be deemed or construed to prevent or impair or in any manner affect the right of an apothecary, druggist, pharmacist or other person to recommend the purchase of an article other than that ordered, required or demanded, but of a similar nature, or to sell such other article in place or in lieu of an article ordered, required or demanded, with the knowledge and consent of the purchaser. Upon a second conviction for a violation of this section the offender must be sentenced to the payment of a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars and may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not to exceed one year. The third conviction of a violation of any of the provisions of this section, in addition to rendering the offender liable to the penalty prescribed by law for a second conviction, shall forfeit any right which he may possess under the law of this state at the time of such conviction, to engage as proprietor, agent, employee or otherwise, in the business of an apothecary, pharmacist, or druggist, or to compound, prepare or dispense prescriptions or orders for drugs, medicines or foods or preparations used in medical practice; and the offender shall be by reason of such conviction disqualified from engaging in any such business as proprietor, agent, employee or otherwise or compounding, preparing or dispensing medical prescriptions or orders for drugs, medicines, or foods or preparations used in medical practice. b. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the practice of a practitioner who is not the proprietor of a store for the dispensing or retailing of drugs, medicines and poisons, or who is not in the employ of such a proprietor, and shall not prevent practitioners from supplying their patients with such articles as they may deem proper, and except as to the labeling of poisons shall not apply to the sale of medicines or poisons at wholesale when not for the use or consumption by the purchaser; provided, however, that the sale of medicines or poisons at whole-sale shall continue to be subject to such regulations as from time to time may be lawfully made by the board of pharmacy or by any competent board of health. c. The provisions of this section shall not apply to a limited pharmacy which prepares a formulary containing the brand names and the generic names of drugs and of manufacturers which it stocks, provided that it furnishes a copy of such formulary to each physician on its staff and the physician signs a statement authorizing the hospital to supply the drug under any generic or non-proprietary name listed therein and in conformity with the regulations of the commissioner of education. 2. For the purposes set forth in this section, the terms prescription, order or demand shall apply only to those items subject to provisions of subdivision one of section sixty-eight hundred ten of this chapter. The written order of a physician for items not subject to provisions of subdivision one of section sixty-eight hundred ten of this chapter shall be construed to be a direction, a fiscal order or a voucher. §6816-a. When substitution is required. 1. A pharmacist shall substitute a less expensive drug product containing the same active ingredients, dosage form and strength as the drug product prescribed, ordered or demanded, Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 53 provided that the following conditions are met: (a) The prescription is written on a form which meets the requirements of subdivision six of section sixty-eight hundred ten of this article and the prescriber does not prohibit substitution, or in the case of oral prescriptions, the prescriber must expressly state whether substitution is to be permitted or prohibited. Any oral prescription that does not include such an express statement shall not be filled; and (b) The substituted drug product is contained in the list of drug products established pursuant to paragraph (o) of subdivision one of section two hundred six of the public health law; and (c) The pharmacist shall indicate on the label affixed to the immediate container in which the drug is sold or dispensed the name and strength of the drug product and its manufacturer unless the prescriber specifically states otherwise. The pharmacist shall record on the prescription form the brand name or the name of the manufacturer of the drug product dispensed. 2. In the event a patient chooses to have a prescription filled by an out of state dispenser, the laws of that state shall prevail. §6817. New drugs. 1. No person shall sell, deliver, offer for sale, hold for sale, or give away any new drug, unless a. an application with respect thereto has become effective, or in the case of an investigational drug the sponsor has complied with the applicable requirements, under the federal food, drug, and cosmetic act, or b. when not subject to such act, such drug has been tested and has not been found to be unsafe or ineffective for use under the conditions prescribed, recommended or suggested in the labeling thereof, and, prior to selling or offering for sale such drug, there has been filed with the department an application setting forth (1) full reports of investigations which have been made to show whether or not such drug is safe and effective for use; (2) a full list of the ingredients used as components of such drug; (3) a full statement of the composition of such drug; (4) a full description of the methods used in, and the facilities and controls used for, the manufacture, processing and packing of such drugs; (5) such samples of such drug and of the ingredients used as components thereof as the board or secretary may require; and (6) specimens of the labeling proposed to be used for such drug. 2. An application provided for in paragraph b of subdivision one shall become effective on the one hundred eightieth day after the filing thereof, except that if the secretary or board finds, after due notice to applicant and giving him an opportunity for a hearing, that the drug is not safe and effective for use under the conditions prescribed, recommended, or suggested in the proposed labeling thereof, he shall, prior to the effective date of the application, issue an order refusing to permit the application to become effective. 3. A drug dispensed on a written or oral prescription of a physician, dentist, podiatrist or veterinarian (except a controlled substance), shall be exempt from the requirements of this section if such drug bears a label containing the name and place of business of the dispenser, the serial number and date of the prescription, directions for use as may be stated in the prescription and the name of the physician, dentist, podiatrist or veterinarian issuing the prescription and the name of the patient. In addition, such drug shall bear a label containing the proprietary or brand name of the drug and, if applicable, the strength of the contents, unless the person issuing the prescription explicitly states on the prescription, in his own handwriting, that the name of the drug and the strength thereof should not appear on the label. 4. The board shall promulgate regulations for exempting from the operation of this section drugs (and with the concurrence of the commissioner of health, pursuant to article thirty-three of the public health law, controlled substances) intended solely for investigational use by experts qualified by scientific training and experience to investigate the safety and efficacy of drugs and labeled "For Investigational Use Only". Such regulations may, within the discretion of the board, among other conditions relating to the protection of the public health, provide for conditioning such exemptions upon: a. The submission to the secretary before any clinical testing of a new drug is undertaken of reports by the manufacturer or sponsor of the investigation of such drug, of preclinical tests, including tests on animals of such drug adequate to justify the proposed clincial testing. b. The manufacturer or the sponsor of the investigation of a new drug proposed to be distributed to investigators for clinical testing obtaining a signed agreement from each of such investigators that patients to whom the drug is administered will be under his personal supervision, or under the supervision of investigators responsible to him, and that he will not supply such drug to any other investigator or to clinics for administration to human beings; and c. The establishment and maintenance of such records and the making of such reports to the board by the manufacturer or the sponsor of the investigation of such drugs of data including, but not limited to, analytical reports by investigators obtained as the result of such investigational use of such drug as the board finds will enable it to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of such drug in the event of the filing of an application pursuant to subdivision one of this section. 5. This section shall not apply to any drug which was licensed under the federal virus, serum, and toxin act of July first, nineteen hundred two (32 Stat. 728) or is licensed under section two hundred sixty-two of the public health service act of July first, nineteen hundred forty-four (58 Stat. 682), or under the federal virus, serums, toxins, antitoxins and analogous products act Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 54 of March fourth, nineteen hundred thirteen (37 Stat. 832). §6818. Adulterated and misbranded cosmetics. 1. A cosmetic shall be deemed to be adulterated: a. If it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to users under the conditions of use prescribed in the labeling thereof, or under such conditions of use as are customary or usual: Provided, that this provision shall not apply to coal-tar hair dye, the label of which bears the following legend conspicuously displayed thereon "Caution--this product contains ingredients which may cause skin irritation on certain individuals and a preliminary test according to accompanying directions should first be made. This product must not be used for dying the eyelashes or eyebrows; to do so may cause blindness", and the labeling of which bears adequate directions for such preliminary testing. For the purpose of this paragraph and paragraph e the term "hair dye" shall not include eyelash dyes or eyebrow dyes. b. If it consists in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance. c. If it has been prepared, packed, shipped or held in any condition or in any other whereby it may have been injurious to health. packaged, insanitary condition rendered of the quantity of the contents in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count: Provided, that under clause (2) of this paragraph reasonable variations shall be permitted, and exemptions as to small packages shall be established by regulations. c. If any word, statement, or other information required by or under authority of this article to appear on the label or labeling is not prominently placed thereon with such conspicuousness (as compared with other words, statements, designs, or devices in the labeling) and in such terms as to render it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use. d. (1) If its container is so made, formed, or filled as to be misleading; or (2) if it bears a copy, counterfeit, or colorable imitation of a trademark, label, or identifying name or design of another cosmetic. §6818-a. Cosmetic samples. 1. No person engaged in the business of selling cosmetics shall provide for the use by or application to customers of any cosmetics, except for use or application to the hand or arm as a sample if such immediate container of cosmetics is to be used by or applied to more than one customer. For the purposes of this section, the term "cosmetic" shall not include perfume or cologne; or samples removed from the immediate container with a single use disposable applicator furnished to each customer; or samples dispensed from a tube, pump, spray or shaker container; or samples or applicators that have been cleansed before each use or application. The provisions of this section shall be deemed to have been satisfied if written instructions on the use or application of cosmetic samples pursuant to this section are clearly and visibly posted at or near the place of display of cosmetic samples. Nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the use or application of cosmetic samples by persons trained to apply cosmetics to customers in accordance with the provisions of this section. 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, a violation of this section shall result in a civil penalty of one hundred dollars for the first offense and a civil penalty of two hundred fifty dollars for a second or subsequent offense. §6819. Regulations making exceptions. The board shall promulgate regulations exempting from any labeling requirement of this article drugs, devices and cosmetics which are, in accordance with the practice of the trade, to be processed, labeled, or repacked in substantial quantities at establishments other than those where originally processed or packed, on condition that such drugs, devices and cosmetics are not adulterated or misbranded under the provisions of this article upon removal from such processing, labeling, or repacking establishment. §6820. Certification of coal-tar colors for drugs and cosmetics. The board shall promulgate regulations providing for the listing of coal-tar colors which are harmless and suitable for use in drugs for purposes of coloring only and for use in cosmetics and for the certification of batches of such colors, with or without harmless diluents. §6821. Poison schedules; register. 1. The following schedules shall remain in force until revised by the board and approved by the department. Schedule A. Arsenic, atropine, corrosive sublimate, potassium cyanide, chloral hydrate, hydrocyanic acid, strychnine and all other poisonous vegetable alkaloids and their salts and oil of bitter almond containing hydrocyanic acid. Schedule B. Aconite, belladonna, cantharides, colchicum, conium cotton root, digitalis, ergot, hellebore, henbane, phytolacca, strophanthus, oil of savin, oil of tansy, veratrum viride and their pharmaceutical preparations, arsenical solutions, carbolic acid, chloroform, creosote, croton oil, white precipitate, methyl or wood alcohol, mineral acids, oxalic acid, paris green, salts of lead, salts of zinc, or any drug, chemical or preparation which is liable to be destructive to adult human life in quantities of sixty grains or less. d. If its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health. e. If it is not a hair dye and it bears or contains a coal-tar color other than one from a batch that has been certified in accordance with regulations as provided by this article. 2. A cosmetic shall be deemed to be misbranded: a. If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular. b. If in package form, unless it bears a label containing (1) the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor; and (2) an accurate statement Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 55 2. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell at retail or to furnish any of the poisons of schedules A and B without affixing or causing to be affixed to the bottle, box, vessel or package, a label with the name of the article and the word "poison" distinctly shown and with the name and place of business of the seller all printed in red ink together with the name of such poisons printed or written thereupon in plain, legible characters. 3. Manufacturers and wholesale dealers in drugs, medicines, pharmaceutical preparations, chemicals or poisons shall affix or cause to be affixed to every bottle, box, parcel or outer inclosure of any original package containing any of the articles of schedule A a suitable label or brand in red ink with the word "poison" upon it. 4. Every person who disposes of or sells at retail or furnishes any poisons included in schedule A shall before delivering the same enter in a book kept for that purpose the date of sale, the name and address of the purchaser, the name and the quantity of the poison, the purpose for which it is purchased and the name of the dispenser. The poison register must be always open for inspection by the proper authorities and must be preserved for at least five years after the last entry. Such person shall not deliver any of the poisons of schedule A or schedule B until he has satisfied himself that the purchaser is aware of its poisonous character and that the poison is to be used for a legitimate purpose. The provisions of this paragraph do not apply to the dispensing of drugs or poisons on a doctor's prescription. 5. The board may add to or may delete from any of the schedules from time to time as such action becomes necessary for the protection of the public. §6822. investigations. Examinations and political subdivision of this state, duly commissioned by the secretary as an officer of the board. §6823. Factory inspection. For purposes of enforcement of this article, officers duly designated by the secretary are authorized: (1) to enter, at reasonable times, any factory, warehouse or establishment in which drugs, devices or cosmetics are manufactured, processed, packed, or held, for introduction into commerce or are held after such introduction, or to enter any vehicle being used to transport or hold such drugs, devices or cosmetics in commerce; and (2) to inspect, at reasonable times, such factory, warehouse, establishment or vehicle and all pertinent equipment, finished and unfinished materials, containers, and labeling therein. §6824. Injunction proceedings. In addition to the remedies hereinafter provided, the secretary is hereby authorized to apply to the court of the proper venue for an injunction to restrain any person from (a) introducing or causing to be introduced into commerce any adulterated or misbranded drug, device or cosmetic; or (b) from introducing or causing to be introduced in commerce any new drug which does not comply with the provisions of this article; or (c) from disseminating or causing to be disseminated a false advertisment, without being compelled to allege or prove that an adequate remedy at law does not exist. §6825. Proof required in prosecution for certain violations. 1. In an action or proceeding, civil or criminal, against a person for violating such provisions of this article which relate to the possession of, compounding, retailing or dispensing of misbranded, substituted or imitated drugs, poisons or cosmetics, when it shall be necessary that an analysis be made for the purpose of establishing the quality of such drug, poison or cosmetic so as to determine the fact of misbranding, substituting or imitating, then it shall be required to prove at the trial or hearing of such action or proceeding, that the person, taking the same for analysis separated it into two representative parts, hermetically or otherwise effectively and completely sealed, delivered one such sealed part to the seller, manufacturer, wholesaler, pharmacist, druggist or storekeeper from whose premises such sample was taken and delivered the other part so sealed to the chemist designated by the state board of pharmacy; and the facts herein required to be proven shall be alleged in the complaint or information by which such action or proceeding was begun. The rules of the board shall be proven prima facie by the certificate of the secretary. 2. Any person accused of violation of any of the provisions of this article relating to adulterating, misbranding, substitution or imitation shall not be prosecuted or convicted or suffer any of the penalties, fines or forfeitures for such violation, if he establishes upon the hearing or trial that the drug, device or cosmetic alleged to be adulterated, misbranded, substituted or imitated was purchased by him under a written guaranty of the manufacturer or seller to the effect that said drug, device or cosmetic was not adulterated or misbranded, within the meaning of this article and proves that he has not adulterated, misbranded, substituted or imitated the same, provided the seller has taken due precaution to maintain the standard set for the drug, device or cosmetic. A guaranty, in order to be a defense to a prosecution or to prevent conviction or to afford protection, must state that the drug, device or cosmetic to which it refers is not adulterated, misbranded, substituted or imitated within the meaning of the provisions of this article and must state also the full name and place of business of the manufacturer, wholesaler, jobber or other person from whom the drug, device or cosmetic was purchased, and the date of purchase. The act, omission or failure of any officer, agent or other employee acting for or employed by any person within the scope of his authority or employment shall in every case be the act, omission or failure of such person as well as that of the officer, agent or other employee, and such person shall be equally liable for violations of this article by a partnership, association or corporation, and every member of the partnership or The secretary is authorized to conduct examinations and investigations for the purposes of this article through officers and employees of the United States, or through any health, food, or drug officer or employee of any city, county or other Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 56 association and the directors and general officers of the corporation and the general manager of the partnership, association or corporation shall be individually liable and any action, prosecution or proceeding authorized by this article may be brought against any or all of such persons. When any prosecution under this article is made on the complaint of the board, any fines collected shall be paid into the state treasury as provided by this article. 3. No publisher, radio-broadcast licensee, advertising agency, or agency or medium for the dissemination of advertising, except the manufacturer, packer, distributor, or seller of the commodity to which the false advertisement relates, shall be subject to the penalties provided by this article by reason of the dissemination by him of any false advertisement, unless he has refused, on the request of the secretary, to furnish the secretary the name and post-office address of the manufacturer, packer, distributor, seller or advertising agency, who caused him to disseminate such advertisement. §6826. Drug retail price lists. 1. Every pharmacy shall compile a drug retail price list, which shall contain the names of the drugs on the list provided by the board and the pharmacy`s corresponding retail prices for each drug. Every pharmacy shall update its drug retail list at least weekly. Every pharmacy shall provide the drug retail price list to any person upon request. 2. a. The list provided by the board shall be prepared at least annually by the board and distributed to each pharmacy in the state. The list shall be a compendium of the one hundred fifty most frequently prescribed drugs together with their usual dosages for which a prescription is required by the provisions of the "Federal Food, Drug,and Cosmetic Act" (21 U.S.C. 301, et seq.; 52 Stat. 1040, et seq.), as amended, or by the commissioner of health. The board shall make the compendium list available to each pharmacy free of charge, both in printed form and in an electronic form that can be used to produce the pharmacy`s drug retail list. b. The drug retail price list shall contain a notice which shall read: "Consult your pharmacist for the selection of the most economical drug product available to fill your prescription" 3. The pharmacy`s corresponding retail price means the actual price to be paid by a retail purchaser to the pharmacy for any listed drug at the listed dosage. 4. Pharmacies shall have a sign notifying people of the availability of the drug retail price list, conspicuously posted at or adjacent to the place in the pharmacy where prescriptions are presented for compounding and dispensing, in the waiting area for customers, or in the area where prescribed drugs are delivered. 5. Nothing contained herein shall prevent a pharmacy from changing and charging the current retail price at any time, provided that the listed price is updated at least weekly to reflect the new retail price. 6. The commissioner shall make regulations necessary to implement this section, including how this section is applied to mail-order and internet pharmacies. §6827. Mandatory continuing education. 1. (a) Each licensed pharmacist required under article one hundred thirty of this chapter to register triennially with the department to practice in the state shall comply with provisions of the mandatory continuing education requirements prescribed in subdivision two of this section except as set forth in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivision. Pharmacists who do not satisfy the mandatory continuing education requirements shall not practice until they have met such requirements, and they have been issued a registration certificate, except that a pharmacist may practice without having met such requirements if he or she is issued a conditional registration certificate pursuant to subdivision three of this section. (b) Pharmacists shall be exempt from the mandatory continuing education requirement for the triennial registration period during which they are first licensed. In accord with the intent of this section, adjustment to the mandatory continuing education requirement may be granted by the department for reasons of health certified by an appropriate health care professional, for extended active duty with the armed forces of the United States, or for other good cause acceptable to the department which may prevent compliance. (c) A licensed pharmacist not engaged in practice as determined by the department, shall be exempt from the mandatory continuing education requirement upon the filing of a statement with the department declaring such status. Any licensee who returns to the practice of pharmacy during the triennial registration period shall notify the department prior to reentering the profession and shall meet such mandatory education requirements as shall be prescribed by regulations of the commissioner. 2. During each triennial registration period an applicant for registration shall complete a minimum of forty-five hours of acceptable formal continuing education, as specified in subdivision four of this section, provided that no more than twenty-two hours of such continuing education shall consist of self-study courses. Any pharmacist whose first registration date following the effective date of this section occurs less than three years from such effective date, but on or after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-eight, shall complete continuing education hours on a prorated basis at the rate of one and one-quarter hours per month for the period beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven up to the first registration date thereafter. A licensee who has not satisfied the mandatory continuing education requirements shall not be issued a triennial registration certificate by the department and shall not practice unless and until a conditional registration certificate is issued as provided for in subdivision three of this section. Continuing education hours taken during one triennium may not be transferred to a subsequent triennium. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 57 3. The department, in its discretion, may issue a conditional registration to a licensee who fails to meet the continuing education requirements established in subdivision two of this section but who agrees to make up any deficiencies and complete any additional education which the department may require. The fee for such a conditional registration shall be the same as, and in addition to, the fee for the triennial registration. The duration of such conditional registration shall be determined by the department but shall not exceed one year. Any licensee who is notified of the denial of registration for failure to submit evidence, satisfactory to the department, of required continuing education and who practices pharmacy without such registration, may be subject to disciplinary proceedings pursuant to section sixty-five hundred ten of this chapter. 4. As used in subdivision two of this section, "acceptable formal continuing education" shall mean formal courses of learning which contribute to professional practice in pharmacy and which meet the standards prescribed by regulations of the commissioner. The department may, in its discretion and as needed to contribute to the health and welfare of the public, require the completion of continuing education courses in specific subjects. To fulfill this mandatory continuing education requirement, courses must be taken from a sponsor approved by the department, pursuant to the regulations of the commissioner. 5. Pharmacists shall maintain adequate documentation of completion of acceptable formal continuing education and shall provide such documentation at the request of the department. Failure to provide such documentation upon the request of the department shall be an act of misconduct subject to disciplinary proceedings pursuant to section sixtyfive hundred ten of this chapter. 6. The mandatory continuing education fee shall be forty-five dollars, shall be payable on or before the first day of each triennial registration period, and shall be paid in addition to the triennial registration fee required by section sixty-eight hundred five of this article. COMMISSIONER’S REGULATIONS Part 52.29 Pharmacy §52.29 Pharmacy. (a) Definitions. section: As used in this (3) Biomedical sciences content area shall mean coursework, which includes but is not limited to, each of the following curricular areas: (i) anatomy; (ii) physiology; (iii) microbiology/immunology; (i) social sciences; and and behavioral (iv) biochemistry; (v) pathology; and (vi) biostatistics. (2) Basis sciences content area shall mean coursework, which includes but is not limited to the following curricular areas: (i) mathematics; (ii) biological sciences, including but not limited to general biology; and (iii) physical sciences, including but not limited to general and organic chemistry. (i) pharmaceutical medicinal chemistry; or (4) Pharmaceutical sciences content area shall mean coursework, which includes but is not limited to, each of the following curricular areas: (iv) pharmacokinetics; (v) pharmacognosy or natural products; (vi) pharmacology; and (vii) pharmacy administration. (5) Clinical sciences content area shall mean coursework in clinical applications using knowledge gained in the biomedical sciences content area and in the pharmaceutical sciences content area, including but not limited to coursework in each of the following curricular areas: clinical and practice foundations, disease processes, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, and drug information and literature evaluation; and shall include an appropriate mix of clinical experiences in community and institutional pharmacies and in appropriate inpatient and out-patient settings. (b) Curriculum. In addition to meeting all applicable provisions of this Part, to be registered as a program recognized as leading to licensure in pharmacy which meets the requirements of (1) General education content area shall mean coursework, which includes but is not limited to, each of the following curricular areas: (ii) humanities, including but not limited to English. (ii) basic pharmaceutics, including but not limited to compounding and dispensing; (iii) biopharmaceutics; Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 58 section 63.1 of this Title, it shall be a program leading to the baccalaureate degree, its equivalent, or a higher academic degree, which includes: (1) a total of at least 60 semester hours or its equivalent of preprofessional study consisting of a combination of coursework in the basic sciences content area and the general education content area, provided that a minimum of 20 semester hours or its equivalent shall be in the basic sciences content area and a minimum of 20 semester hours or its equivalent shall be in the general education content area; and (2) a total of at least 90 semester hours or its equivalent of professional study consisting of a combination of coursework in the biomedical sciences content area, pharmaceutical sciences content area, and the clinical sciences content area, provided that a minimum of 15 semester hours or its equivalent shall be in the biomedical sciences content area, a minimum of 20 semester hours or its equivalent shall be in the pharmaceutical sciences content area, and a minimum of 15 semester hours or its equivalent shall be in the clinical sciences content area. Part 63 Pharmacy §63.1 Professional study of pharmacy. (a) As used in this section, acceptable accrediting agency shall mean an organization accepted by the department as a reliable authority for the purpose of accreditation at the postsecondary level, applying its criteria for granting accreditation in a fair, consistent, and nondiscriminatory manner, such as an agency recognized for this purpose by the United States Department of Education. (b) To meet the professional education requirement for admission to the licensing examination, the applicant shall present satisfactory evidence of either: (1) completing a program in pharmacy leading to the baccalaureate degree, its equivalent, or a higher degree, that is either registered by the department pursuant to section 52.29 of this Title or accredited by an acceptable accrediting agency; or (2) for applicants who apply for licensure prior to September 1, 2001, completing a nonregistered or nonaccredited program in pharmacy, including a foreign pharmacy program, of not less than three academic years of professional study, or the equivalent thereof, satisfactory to the department, and attaining Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Committee Certification by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy or its successor, or an equivalent certification acceptable to the department. The program of study in a foreign school of pharmacy shall culminate in the awarding of a degree, diploma or certificate in pharmacy recognized by the appropriate civil authorities of the country in which the school is located as meeting the educational requirement for entry into practice in that country; or (3) for applicants who apply for licensure on or after September 1, 2001, completing a nonregistered or nonaccredited program in pharmacy, including a pharmacy program located in another country that is equivalent to a program registered by the department pursuant to section 52.29 of this Title and attaining Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Committee Certification by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy or its successor or an equivalent certification acceptable to the department. The program of study in another jurisdiction shall culminate in the awarding of a degree, diploma or certificate in pharmacy recognized by the appropriate civil authorities of the jurisdiction in which the school is located as meeting the educational requirements for entry into practice in that jurisdiction. (c) A program of pharmacy education shall be considered completed upon certification of completion by the school in which such program was taken and proof that the applicant has been awarded the appropriate pharmacy degree, diploma or certificate. §63.2 Experience. For admission examination: to the licensing (iii) Part-time supervised practice completed pursuant to the provisions of subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of this paragraph may be granted proportionate credit. For (a) Graduates of registered or accredited programs leading to the bachelor's degree in pharmacy shall have completed at least six months of full-time experience, or the equivalent thereof, as a pharmacy intern in an internship program which meets the following requirements: (1) Program requirement. The internship program shall be devoted to the preparing, compounding, preserving and dispensing of drugs, medicines and therapeutic devices and to the performance of the functions related thereto, such as the counseling of patients and the monitoring of drug regimens, under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. (2) Time requirement. The six months shall be completed in accordance with the following: (i) Any portion or all of the internship may be completed during periods subsequent to the successful completion of the first year of a professional education program in pharmacy and not concurrent with full-time enrollment in such a program. (ii) Any portion or all of the internship may be completed subsequent to the award of a degree in pharmacy which meets the requirement of section 63.1 of this Part. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 59 the calculation of equivalencies, full-time shall be defined as 40 hours per week. (3) Preceptor pharmacist requirement. The registered pharmacist who supervises an intern shall be designated the preceptor pharmacist. Each preceptor pharmacist shall have practiced for at least one year immediately preceding assuming a preceptorship. The preceptor pharmacist shall have under his or her supervision not more than one fulltime intern nor more than two parttime interns. (4) Additional requirement. In each pharmacy which will serve for the training of interns, one intern may be engaged for each 5,000 prescriptions and/or drug orders dispensed annually and for a major fraction thereof over a multiple of 5,000. (b) Graduates of nonregistered and nonaccredited programs, including foreign programs in pharmacy, shall be authorized to begin an internship only after passing Part I of the pharmacist licensing examination. Thereafter, the applicant shall complete not less than 12 months of full-time experience, or the equivalent thereof, in an internship program which meets the requirements of paragraphs (a)(1), (3) and (4) of this section. Upon completion of the internship program, the applicant may be admitted to the practical portions (Part II and III) of the examination. (c) Graduates of registered or accredited programs leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy degree shall be considered to have completed the internship requirement. Part III.: Prescription compounding and pharmacy practice. (b) The department may accept satisfactory scores on an examination of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy as meeting the requirements of Part I of the licensing examination. (c) Passing score. The passing score in each part of the examination shall be 75.0, as determined by the State Board of Pharmacy. (d) Special condition. A graduate of a registered or accredited program of education who has not completed the required practical experience may be admitted to Part I of the examination only. §63.4 Limited permits. (a) A limited permit, identifying the holder as a pharmacy intern and authorizing the practice of pharmacy under the immediate and personal supervision of a registered pharmacist, may be issued in accordance with the provisions of section 6806 of the Education Law to: (1) an applicant, enrolled in a program of pharmacy education registered or approved by the department, who has completed at least the third year of a five-year program or its equivalent, provided that the applicant has completed the first year of professional study; or (2) a graduate of a nonregistered or nonaccredited pharmacy program, including a foreign pharmacy program, for the purpose of completing the experience requirement set forth in section 63.2(b) of this Part. (b) A limited permit shall be displayed conspicuously in the pharmacy where the pharmacy intern is engaged for supervised practice. (c) A pharmacy intern may perform, under the supervision of a preceptor pharmacist, all of the functions delegated to pharmacists by law, rule or regulation. §63.5 License as a pharmacist by endorsement. For endorsement of a pharmacist license issued by another jurisdiction, the applicant shall: (a) present evidence of having met all requirements of section 59.6 of this Title, except that the applicant shall have had, during the five years preceding the filing of the application, at least one year of satisfactory experience following licensure; and (b) pass an examination of the laws, rules, regulations and professional conduct pertaining to the practice of pharmacy in New York administered by the department or an equivalent examination acceptable to the State Board of Pharmacy. §63.6 Registration and operation of New York establishments. (a) General Provisions. (1) The requirements of this section shall apply to establishments located in New York State. Section 63.8 of this Part sets forth requirements for the registration of nonresident establishments. (2) A certificate of registration issued for the operation of a pharmacy, manufacturer or wholesaler shall be valid only for that address stated on the certificate. Endorsement of the certificate to another address may be made by the State Board of Pharmacy upon application to the board, the payment of the fee set forth in Education Law, section 6808, and a finding by the board that the new location meets the requirements of the applicable subdivisions of this section. An application for endorsement to another address shall be made not less than 30 days prior to the expected date of relocation. (3) In the case of a corporation, the State Board of Pharmacy shall be notified within 30 days of any change in the officers of the corporation or in stockholders holding 10 percent or more of the stock in the corporation. (4) No certificate of registration shall be issued or continued for the conduct of a pharmacy, manufacturer, or wholesaler unless the premises occupied by such registered establishment shall be equipped with proper sanitary appliances and kept in a clean and orderly manner. (5) The State Board of Pharmacy shall be notified within a period of 48 hours whenever any establishment §63.3 Licensing examinations. (a) Content. The examination shall consist of three parts: Part I.: Applied chemistry, mathematics, pharmacology and pharmaceutics and clinical pharmacy. Part II.: Professional law, ethics and professional conduct, prescription and nonprescription required drugs and prescription problems. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 60 registered by the board is damaged by fire, flood or other disaster. (6) Signs on establishments. Except as otherwise provided for pharmacies in general merchandising establishments in paragraph (b)(5) of this section, a sign bearing the full name of the registrant shall be displayed prominently on the exterior of the premises in which a registered establishment is located, or in the directory and on the immediate entrance to the registered establishment if it is located in a multi-tenanted structure. (7) Electronically prescriptions. transmitted (d) Such transmission shall be processed in accordance with the requirements of section 29.7 of this Title; and (e) In accepting an electronically transmitted prescription, the pharmacist shall be subject to the applicable requirements of Part 29 of this Title relating to unprofessional conduct, including but not limited to paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (b) of section 29.1 of this Title. (8) Refill transfers. Except for a prescription for a controlled substance under Article 33 of the Public Health Law, pharmacists at registered pharmacies may, at the express request and approval of a patient or a person authorized to act on behalf of the patient, transfer prescription information to, or accept a transfer from, another registered pharmacy or a pharmacy authorized to do business in another jurisdiction for the exclusive purpose of providing one authorized refill per transfer, subject to requirements of this paragraph. (i) A pharmacist at a registered pharmacy may transfer original prescription information required by section 29.7 (a) (1) of this Title, to another pharmacy for the purpose of providing one authorized refill per transfer, provided that the original prescription information is transferred directly from one pharmacist to another pharmacist. Such transfer of prescription information may be accomplished by oral or written communication or by electronic transmission. The pharmacist at a registered pharmacy who transfers original prescription information shall record the following information: (a) the fact that an authorized refill of the prescription has been transferred; (b) the name, address and telephone number of the pharmacy to which it was transferred; (c) the name of the pharmacist receiving the prescription information; (d) the name of the pharmacist transferring the information; and (e) the date of the transfer. (ii) A pharmacist at a registered pharmacy may accept the original prescription for the purpose of providing one authorized refill per transfer, provided that the original prescription information is transferred from one pharmacist to another pharmacist. The pharmacist at a registered pharmacy who accepts the original prescription information shall: (a) obtain all information required by section 29.7(a)(1) of this Title; (b) produce a hard copy of such information and ensure that the term “refill transfer” appears on the face of the hard copy; and (c) record the dates of original and most recent filling or transfer of the original prescription, the transferring pharmacy’s name and address, the original prescription number from which the prescription was transferred, the name of the pharmacist transferring the prescription, and the name of the pharmacist receiving the transfer. (iii) Systems providing for the electronic transfer of prescriptions shall not infringe on a patient’s freedom of choice as to the provider of pharmaceutical care. (iv) The hard copy of the transferred prescription shall be maintained for a period of five years from the date of filling. (v) A pharmacy utilizing automated data processing systems to transfer a prescription refill or to accept a prescription refill shall satisfy the requirements of this subdivision and shall also meet the requirements of paragraph (9) of this subdivision if the pharmacy accesses a common electronic file or database used to maintain required personally identifiable dispensing information. (9) A pharmacy that accesses a common electronic file or database (i) For the purposes of this section, electronically transmitted prescription means a prescription created, recorded, transmitted or stored by electronic means, including but not limited to facsimile but excluding any such prescription for a controlled substance under Article 33 of the Public Health Law. (ii) A pharmacist may, based upon his or her professional judgment, accept an electronically transmitted prescription from a prescriber, to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice, subject to the following requirements: (a) The prescription shall contain the signature, or the electronic equivalent of a signature, of the prescriber; (b) In the case of an electronically transmitted prescription, other than facsimile transmission, such prescription shall be electronically encrypted, meaning protected to prevent access, alteration or use by any unauthorized person; (c) A permanent hard copy of an electronically transmitted prescription shall be produced and maintained at the pharmacy for a period of five years from the date of the most recent filling. A permanent facsimile copy shall be considered a hard copy; Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 61 used to maintain required personally identifiable dispensing information shall only access such information upon the express request of the patient or a person authorized to act on behalf of the patient. Such common file shall contain complete records of each prescription and refill dispensed. (b) Pharmacies. (1) To secure and retain registration, a pharmacy shall be equipped with at least the following utensils: (i) weighing device sensitive to 6 mg; (ii) metric weights, if needed for the operation of the device in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph; (iii) devices capable of measuring volumes from 0.1 ml to 500 ml; and (iv) a mortar and pestle. (2) The registered area shall measure not less than 300 square feet and shall include a manufacturing, compounding and dispensing area of not less than 100 square feet. The pharmacy shall be equipped with storage facilities providing for the safe storage of drugs; with heating and ventilation adequate to safeguard the purity and potency of drugs; with adequate lighting; and with hot and cold running water in the compounding and dispensing area; provided, however, that a pharmacy which was registered initially prior to the effective date of this paragraph on the basis of meeting requirements less than those specified in this paragraph shall not be required to meet the requirements of this paragraph for the continuance of registration to the same registrant. (3) The registered area shall include a refrigerator, sufficient in capacity to serve the needs of the pharmacy, that is equipped with a thermometer and providing at all times a storage temperature of 2 degrees to 8 degrees Centigrade (36 degrees to 46 degrees Fahrenheit). The use of such refrigerator shall be limited to the storage of drugs. (4) The pharmacy shall possess copies of laws, rules and regulations governing the practice of pharmacy in New York, and other reference resources as may be necessary to carry on the practice of pharmacy. (5) A pharmacy operated as a department of a general merchandising establishment shall be enclosed permanently by a partition at least nine feet six inches in height, except where the ceiling is less than nine feet six inches in height in which case the partition shall be from floor to ceiling. Identification of such department by use of words "drugs," "medicines," "drug store" or "pharmacy" or similar terms shall be restricted to the area registered by the department, except that nothing in this restriction shall prevent the placement on the exterior of such establishment of signs indicating the existence of a pharmacy therein. Such exterior signs may consist of the name of the registrant and/or the word pharmacy; provided, however, that when the word pharmacy is used, it may not be used in juxtaposition to a nonregistered name. When the pharmacy is not open during all the hours maintained by the general merchandising establishment, an exterior sign shall indicate clearly when the pharmacy is open and when it is closed. (6) A pharmacy in which radioactive drugs are dispensed shall meet all requirements established by 10 NYCRR Part 16 for medical and academic facilities or by 12 NYCRR Part 38 for commercial facilities as evidenced by receipt by the pharmacy of an appropriate license issued by the New York State Department of Health or the New York State Department of Labor, and the additional requirements which follow. (i) There shall be present at all hours when the pharmacy is open at least one pharmacist who: (a) meets the minimal standards of training and experience required by 10 NYCRR Part 16 or by 12 NYCRR Part 38 for the use of radioactive materials; and (b) has submitted to the State Board of Pharmacy evidence of either of the following: (1) certification as a Nuclear Pharmacist by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties of the American Pharmaceutical Association; or (2) completion of a minimum of 200 contact hours of didactic instruction in nuclear pharmacy in an accredited school or college of pharmacy, and a minimum of 500 hours of clinical nuclear pharmacy training under the supervision of a Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties certified nuclear pharmacist in a pharmacy providing nuclear pharmacy services, in a certified nuclear pharmacy residency program or in a nuclear pharmacy training program in an accredited school or college of pharmacy or the equivalent thereof as determined by the department. (ii) In addition to the items and articles of equipment required by this subdivision, the pharmacy shall be equipped with at least the following: (a) laminar flow hood; (b) dose calibrator; (c) exhaust hood and filter system; (d) apparatus; chromatography (e) apparatus or materials for the determination of pH; (f) single-channel and/or multichannel scintillation detection system; and (g) microscope. (iii) A pharmacy which dispenses both radioactive drugs and nonradioactive drugs shall maintain a separate area for the storage and dispensing of radioactive drugs, which area shall Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 62 be secured personnel. from unauthorized (7) Patient medication profile. Each pharmacist shall maintain a patient medication profile. Such medication profile shall include, but not be limited to, the patient's name, address, telephone number, gender, date of birth or age, known allergies and drug reactions, chronic diseases, a comprehensive list of medications and relevant devices and other information reported to the pharmacist appropriate for counseling an individual regarding use of prescription and over-thecounter drugs. Pharmacists or pharmacy interns shall conduct a prospective drug review before each prescription is dispensed or delivered to a patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient. Such review shall include screening for potential drug therapy problems due to therapeutic duplication, drug-drug interactions, including serious interactions with over-the-counter drugs, incorrect drug dosage or duration of drug treatment, drugallergy interactions, and clinical abuse or misuse. Patient medication profiles shall be maintained in a retrievable form for five years following the date of the most recent entry. (8) Counseling. pharmacist or pharmacy intern providing prescription services shall be required to personally counsel each patient or person authorized to act on behalf of a patient who presents a prescription, consistent with the provisions of section 29.1(b)(8) of this Title, in person in a face-to-face meeting whenever practicable, or by telephone, matters which in the exercise of the pharmacist’s or pharmacy intern’s professional judgment, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern deems appropriate, which may include: (1) the name and description of the medication and known indications; (2) dosage form, dosage, route of administration and duration of drug therapy; (3) special directions and precautions for preparation, administration and use by the patient; (4) common severe side or adverse effects or interactions and therapeutic contraindications that may be encountered, including their avoidance, and the action required if they occur; (5) techniques for self-monitoring drug therapy; (6) proper storage; (7) prescription refill information; (d) In the event a patient or a person authorized to act on behalf of a patient seeks to obtain a refill of an existing prescription previously filled by the pharmacy or an authorization for continuation of an existing therapy, a pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall be available to provide counseling to the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of a patient, upon such person's request. In such circumstances and consistent with the requirements of paragraph (21) of subdivision (a) of section 29.7 of this Title, an offer to counsel the patient or a person authorized to act on behalf of a patient may be conveyed on behalf of the pharmacist or pharmacy intern by an unlicensed assistant. Such counseling shall be conducted only by a pharmacist or pharmacy intern. (e) Nothing in this subparagraph shall prevent a pharmacist or pharmacy intern from refusing to dispense a prescription if, in his or her professional judgment, potential adverse effects, interactions or other therapeutic complications could endanger the health of the patient. (ii) Off-premises delivery. For a prescription that is delivered to the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient off the premises of the pharmacy through mail delivery, a delivery service or otherwise, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall meet the requirements of this subparagraph. (a) Upon dispensing a prescription, a pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall include with each prescription a written offer to counsel the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient who presents the prescription. The written offer of counseling shall advise the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient of the availability of counseling on topics, which shall include but not be limited to, the topics listed in subclauses (1) through (8) of clause (a) of subparagraph (i) of this paragraph and that a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy intern authorized to practice pharmacy is available to provide the counseling. The written offer to counsel shall provide a telephone number at which a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy intern may be readily reached. For pharmacies engaged primarily in the mail order delivery of (i) On-premises delivery. For a prescription that is delivered to a patient or a person authorized to act on behalf of the patient on the premises of the pharmacy, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall meet the requirements of this subparagraph. For a prescription that is delivered to a patient or a person authorized to act on behalf of a patient off the premises of a pharmacy through mail delivery, a delivery service or otherwise, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall meet the requirements of subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph. (a) Prior to dispensing a prescription for the first time for a new patient of the pharmacy or a prescription for a new medication for an existing patient of the pharmacy and/or a change in the dose, strength, route of administration or directions for use of an existing prescription previously dispensed for an existing patient of the pharmacy, a and (8) action to be taken in the event of a missed dose. (b) The counseling of a patient or person authorized to act on behalf of a patient pursuant to clause (a) of this subparagraph shall be provided personally by the pharmacist or the pharmacy intern and shall not be delegated to an individual not authorized to practice pharmacy under a license or limited permit. (c) In the event a patient refuses to supply information necessary for maintenance of a medication profile, or to accept counseling, as prescribed in clause (a) of this subparagraph, a pharmacist or pharmacy intern may fill a prescription as presented, without having violated the requirements of this subparagraph, provided that the refusal to provide such information or accept counseling is documented in the records of the pharmacy. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 63 prescriptions, that telephone number shall be toll-free for long distance calls. (b) When a patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient requests counseling pursuant to the written offer of counseling, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall personally counsel that person, consistent with the provisions of section 29.1(b)(8) of this Title, to the extent the pharmacist or pharmacy intern deems appropriate in his or her professional judgment. Such counseling may include the topics listed in subclauses (1) through (8) of clause (a) of subparagraph (I) of this paragraph. Such counseling shall be conducted via telephone or in an in-person face-to-face meeting. (c) Except for instances covered by clause (d) of this subparagraph, which applies in those cases, if upon presentation of the prescription, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern determines that the prescription is a prescriber approved alternative drug, meaning a change in the drug originally prescribed exclusive of generic substitutions, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall meet the following requirements in addition to the requirements of clauses (a) and (b) of this subparagraph: (1) Upon dispensing the prescription, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall include with each prescription a special written notification that clearly advises the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient that a prescriber approved alternative drug has been dispensed, the directions for the use of such drug and the availability of counseling on the drug. (2) Except for the cases set forth in subclause (3) of this clause, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall make a reasonable effort to contact the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient by telephone in order to personally offer counseling to that person about the prescriber approved alternative drug and other matters which in the exercise of the pharmacist’s or pharmacy intern’s judgment, he or she deems appropriate, consistent with the provisions of section 29.1(b)(8) of this Title, including topics prescribed in subclauses (1) through (8) of clause (a) of subparagraph (i) of this paragraph. The effort to contact the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient by telephone may commence after the drug is mailed or delivered to that person. A reasonable effort to contact the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient by telephone shall mean at least two attempts to reach the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient through telephone calls placed to such person by 48 hours after mailing or delivering the prescription. (3) The pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall not be required to make an effort to contact the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient by telephone, as prescribed in subclause (2) of this clause, if the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient does not have a telephone at which he or she may be reached, or if such person refuses to provide a telephone number at which he or she may be reached, or if such person has indicated to the pharmacy that he or she does not wish to be contacted by telephone for counseling. (4) The pharmacy shall document the efforts made to contact the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient by telephone, or alternatively, the fact that the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient either does not have a telephone at which he or she may be reached or refuses to provide a telephone number at which he or she may be reached or has indicated to the pharmacy that he or she does not wish to be contacted by telephone for counseling. (5) The offer to counsel the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient shall be provided personally by the pharmacist or the pharmacy intern and shall not be delegated to an individual not authorized to practice pharmacy under a license or limited permit. (6) If the offer of counseling is accepted, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall counsel the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient to the extent that the pharmacist or pharmacy intern deems appropriate in his or her professional judgment, as prescribed in subclause (2) of this clause. (7) If the offer of counseling is not accepted, the refusal to accept counseling shall be documented in the records of the pharmacy. (d) If upon presentation of the prescription, the pharmacist of pharmacy intern determines that there are potential drug therapy problems which could endanger the health of the patient, including but not limited to: therapeutic duplication, drug-drug interactions and drug-allergy interactions, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall be subject to the following requirements in addition to the requirements of clauses (a) and (b) of this subparagraph: (1) Prior to dispensing the prescription, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall personally contact the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient via telephone or through an in-person faceto-face meeting to offer counseling on the identified potential drug therapy problems and other matters which in the exercise of the pharmacist’s or pharmacy intern’s judgment, he or she deems appropriate, consistent with the provisions of section 29.1(b)(8) of this Title, including topics prescribed in subclauses (1) through (8) of clause (a) of subparagraph (i) of this paragraph. (2) The offer to counsel the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient shall be provided personally by the pharmacist or the pharmacy intern and shall not be delegated to an individual not authorized to practice pharmacy under a license or limited permit. (3) If the offer of counseling is accepted, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall counsel the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient to the extent that the pharmacist or pharmacy intern deems appropriate in his or her professional judgment, as prescribed in subclause (1) of this clause. (4) If the offer of counseling is not accepted, the refusal to accept counseling shall be documented in the records of the pharmacy. (5) Nothing in this subparagraph shall prevent a pharmacist or pharmacy intern from refusing to dispense a Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 64 prescription if, in his or her professional judgment, potential adverse effects, interactions or other therapeutic complications could endanger the health of the patient. (9) Drug retail price lists. Every registered pharmacy that sells prescription medications at retail shall meet the requirements of section 6826 of the Education Law. In accordance with subdivision (4) of section 6826 of the Education Law, such registered pharmacies shall have a sign notifying people of the availability of the drug retail price list, conspicuously posted at or adjacent to the place in the pharmacy where prescriptions are presented for compounding and dispensing, in the waiting area for customers, or in the area where prescribed drugs are delivered. The sign shall state in bold, block letters of at least one inche in height: "Drug Retail Price List Available Upon Request". Such registered pharmacies that offer to dispense prescription drugs to consumers through a website on the Internet shall post on such website a notice of the availability of the drug retail price list. Such registered pharmacies that offer to dispense prescription drugs to consumers through mail order shall include a printed notice with each delivery of a prescription drug informing the consumer of the availability of the drug retail price list and a toll-free telephone number to obtain the list. (c) Manufacturers and wholesalers. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subdivision, no manufacturer or wholesaler shall be registered pursuant to the provisions of subdivision 4 of section 6808 of the Education Law unless a registered pharmacist is present at all times when the establishment is open for business; provided, however, that such establishment may be under the supervision of a chemist who holds a bachelor's degree with a major in chemistry and who has at least two years of experience in the manufacturing, repacking and/or wholesaling of drugs satisfactory to the State Board of Pharmacy. (2) Wholesalers who do not repack may designate as the supervisor a person who presents evidence of the completion of a minimum of two years of education beyond high school and who has at least two years of experience in the manufacturing, repacking and/or wholesaling of drugs satisfactory to the State Board of Pharmacy. Establishments which limit their operation to manufacturing and repacking of compressed medical gases and/or wholesaling of related respiratory therapy agents may be under the supervision of: (i) a respiratory therapist certified by a national accrediting body; (ii) a person holding a bachelor's degree in chemistry, microbiology, chemical engineering or a related field; or (iii) a person having two years of education beyond high school and two years experience in the handling of compressed medical gases satisfactory to the State Board of Pharmacy. (3) The supervisor of an establishment designated pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subdivision shall not be at the same time the supervisor of any other establishment registered by the board. (4) The size and facilities of a registered establishment shall be appropriate for the activities to be conducted therein. The area to be registered shall measure not less than 300 square feet. The registered area shall not be shared with or be devoted in part to any other business. The registered establishment shall be in compliance with at least the minimum requirements as provided in section 205.50 of title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (Code of Federal Regulations, 1991 edition, Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402: 1991-available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234-1000). (5) Manufacturers or wholesalers shall sell drugs and/or devices only to those purchasers authorized by law. Records of the receipt and disposition of all drugs and/or devices shall be maintained for a period of five years and shall be available to the department for review and copying. (6) Certification of manufacturers and wholesalers for export purposes. Any registered manufacturer or wholesaler may be issued a certificate by the executive secretary of the State Board of Pharmacy, authenticating said registration and identifying the specified drugs and/or devices as articles regularly offered for sale in New York. The fee for each certificate shall be $5. (d) The Commissioner, upon recommendation of the Board of Pharmacy, may in his or her discretion waive regulations in this Part in order to allow the initiation and evaluation of demonstration projects using emerging technologies and practices in the profession of pharmacy, if the Commissioner determines that such waiver does not violate a statutory requirement or a Rule of the Board of Regents, is consistent with existing statutory and regulatory intent, and that such waiver will not diminish patient safety or consumer protections. §63.7 Continuing education. (a) As used in this section, acceptable accrediting agency shall mean an organization accepted by the department as a reliable authority for the purpose of accreditation at the postsecondary level, applying its criteria for granting accreditation in a fair, consistent, and nondiscriminatory manner, such as an agency recognized for this purpose by the United States Department of Education. (b) Applicability of requirement. (1) Each licensed pharmacist, required under article 130 of the Education Law to register with the department to practice in New York State, shall comply with the mandatory continuing education requirements as prescribed in subdivision (c) of this section, except those licensees exempt from the requirement or who obtain an adjustment to the requirement pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subdivision. (2) Exemptions and adjustments to the requirement. (i) Exemptions. The following licensees shall be exempt from the continuing education requirements, as prescribed in subdivision (c) of this section: Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 65 (a) licensees for the triennial registration period during which they are first licensed to practice pharmacy in New York State, exclusive of those first licensed to practice pharmacy in New York State pursuant to an endorsement of a license of another jurisdiction; (b) licensees whose first registration date following January 1, 1997 occurs prior to January 1, 1998, for periods prior to such registration date; and (c) licensees who are not engaged in the practice of pharmacy, as evidenced by not being registered to practice in New York State, except as otherwise provided in paragraph (c)(2) of this section to meet the education requirements for the resumption of practice after a lapse in practice for a licensee who has not lawfully practiced continuously in another jurisdiction throughout such lapse period. (ii) Adjustments to the requirement. An adjustment to the continuing education requirement, as prescribed in subdivision (c) of this section, shall be made by the department, provided that the licensee documents good cause that prevents compliance, which shall include but not be limited to, any of the following reasons: poor health certified by an appropriate health care professional; or extended active duty with the Armed Forces of the United States; or extreme hardship which in the judgment of the department makes it impossible for the licensee to comply with the continuing education requirements in a timely manner. (c) Mandatory continuing education requirement. (1) During each triennial registration period, meaning a registration period of three years’ duration, an applicant for registration shall complete at least 45 hours of formal continuing education acceptable to the department, as defined in paragraph (4) of this subdivision, provided that no more than 22 hours of such continuing education shall consist of self-study courses. During registration periods beginning on or after September 1, 2003, a licensee shall complete as part of the 45 hours of formal continuing education, or pro-ration thereof, at least three hours of formal continuing education acceptable to the department in the processes and strategies that may be used to reduce medication and/or prescription errors. Any licensed pharmacist whose first registration date following January 1, 1997 occurs less than three years from that date, but on or after January 1, 1998, shall complete continuing education hours on a prorated basis at the rate of one and one-quarter hours of acceptable formal continuing education per month for the period beginning January 1, 1997 up to the first registration date thereafter. Such continuing education shall be completed during the period beginning January 1, 1997 and ending before the first day of the new registration period or at the option of the licensee during any time in the previous registration period. (2) Requirement for lapse in practice. (i) A licensee returning to the practice of pharmacy after a lapse in practice, as evidenced by not being registered to practice in New York State, whose first registration date after such lapse in practice and following January 1, 1997 occurs less than three years from January 1, 1997, but on or after January 1, 1998, shall be required to complete: (a) at least one and one-quarter hours of acceptable formal continuing education for each month beginning with January 1, 1997 until the beginning of the new registration period, which shall be completed for a licensee who has not lawfully practiced pharmacy continuously in another jurisdiction throughout such lapse period, in the 12-month period before the beginning of the new registration period; and for a licensee who has lawfully practiced pharmacy continuously in another jurisdiction throughout such lapse period, in the new registration period or at the option of the licensee in the period beginning 36 months before the commencement of the new registration period and ending at the conclusion of such registration period; and (b) for a licensee who has not lawfully practiced pharmacy continuously in another jurisdiction throughout such lapse period, at least 15 hours of acceptable formal continuing education in each successive 12-month period of the new registration period; and for a licensee who has lawfully practiced pharmacy continuously in another jurisdiction throughout such lapse period, acceptable formal continuing education at the rate of one and one-quarter hours per month during the new registration period. (ii) Except as prescribed in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph for registrations therein specified, the licensee who returns to the practice of pharmacy after a lapse in practice in which the licensee was not registered to practice in New York State and did not lawfully practice pharmacy continuously in another jurisdiction throughout the lapse period, shall be required to complete: (a) the continuing education requirement applicable to the period of time the licensee was registered in the licensee’s last registration period; (b) at least one and one-quarter hours of acceptable formal continuing education for each month of lapsed registration up to a maximum of 45 hours, which shall be completed in the 12 months before the beginning of the new registration period; and at least 15 hours of (c) acceptable formal continuing education in each succeeding 12month period, after such registration is reissued, until the next registration date. (iii) Except as prescribed in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph for registrations therein specified, the licensee who returns to the practice of pharmacy after a lapse in practice in which the licensee was not registered to practice in New York State but did lawfully practice pharmacy continuously in another jurisdiction throughout the lapse period, shall be required to complete: (a) the continuing education requirement applicable to the period of time the licensee was Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 66 registered in the licensee’s last registration period; (b) at least one and one-quarter hours of acceptable formal continuing education for each month of lapsed registration up to a maximum of 45 hours, which shall be completed in the new registration period, or at the option of the licensee in the period beginning 36 months before the commencement of the new registration period and ending at the conclusion of the new registration period; and (c) completion of the regular continuing education requirement at the rate of one and one-quarter hours of acceptable formal continuing education per month during the new registration period. (3) Proration. If a registration period is less than three years in duration, a licensed pharmacist shall complete acceptable formal continuing education at the rate of one and onequarter hours of continuing education per month for such registration period. (4) To be acceptable to the department, formal continuing education shall be formal courses of learning which contribute to professional practice in pharmacy: (i) in any one or more of the following curricular areas: pharmacology of new and developing drugs, or drug interactions, or public health issues, or infection control, or sterile procedures, or legal and regulatory issues, or patient counseling, or other topics which contribute to the professional practice in pharmacy as such practice is defined in section 6801 of the Education Law, or other matters of health care, law, and ethics which contribute to the health and welfare of the public; and (ii) obtained from a sponsor approved by the department pursuant to subdivision (h) of this section. (d) Renewal of registration. At each reregistration, licensed pharmacists shall certify to the department that they have either complied with the continuing education requirements, as prescribed in subdivision (c) of this section; or are subject to an exemption or adjustment to such continuing education requirements, as prescribed in subdivision (b) of this section. (e) Conditional registration. (1) The department shall issue a conditional registration to a licensee who attests to or admits to noncompliance with the continuing education requirements of this section, provided that such licensee meets the following requirements: (i) the licensee agrees to remedy such deficiency within the conditional registration period; (ii) the licensee agrees to complete the regular continuing education requirement at the rate of one and onequarter hours of acceptable formal continuing education per month during such conditional registration period; and (iii) the licensee agrees to complete additional continuing education during such conditional registration period, which the department may require to ensure the licensee’s proper delivery of pharmaceutical care consistent with the licensee’s practice of pharmacy. (2) The duration of such conditional registration shall not exceed one year and shall not be renewed or extended. (f) Licensee records. Each licensee subject to this section shall maintain, or ensure access by the department to, a record of completed continuing education which includes: the title of the program, the number of hours completed, the sponsor’s name and any identifying number, attendance verification, and the date and location of the program. Such records shall be retained for at least six years from the date of completion of the program and shall be available for review by the department in the administration of the requirements of this section. (g) Measurement of continuing education study. Continuing education credit shall be granted only for formal programs of learning that meet the requirements set forth in subdivision (c) of this section. A minimum of 50 minutes of study shall equal one hour of continuing education credit. For credit-bearing university or college courses, each semester-hour of credit shall equal 15 hours of continuing education credit, and each quarter-hour of credit shall equal 10 hours of continuing education credit. (h) Sponsor approval. (1) To be approved by the department, sponsors of continuing education to licensed pharmacists shall meet the requirements of either paragraph (2) or (3) of this subdivision. (2) The department shall deem approved as a sponsor of continuing education to licensed pharmacists: (i) a sponsor of continuing education that is approved by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education or an equivalent. organization determined by the State Board for Pharmacy to have equivalent standards for approving sponsors of continuing education for professionals regulated by title VIII of the Education Law; or (ii) a postsecondary institution for courses in programs that are registered pursuant to Part 52 of this Title or in equivalent programs that are accredited by an acceptable accrediting agency. (3) Department review of sponsors. (i) The department shall conduct a review of sponsors that apply for approval to offer continuing education to licensed pharmacists and that are not deemed approved pursuant to the requirements of paragraph (2) of this subdivision (ii) Organizations desiring to offer continuing education based upon a department review under this paragraph shall submit, with the fee as set forth in subdivision (i) of this section, an application for advance approval as a sponsor at least 90 days prior to the date for the commencement of such continuing education that documents that the organization: (a) will offer courses of study in any one or more of the following curricular areas: pharmacology of new and developing drugs, or drug interactions, or public health issues, or infection control, or sterile procedures, or legal and regulatory issues, or patient counseling, or other topics which contribute to the professional practice in pharmacy Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 67 as such practice is defined in section 6801 of the Education Law, or other matters of health care, law, and ethics which contribute to the health and welfare of the public; (b) is an organized educational entity, including but not limited to, a college of pharmacy; or a national, State, or local pharmacy association; or a hospital or health maintenance organization; (c) provides course instructors who are qualified to teach the courses which will be offered, including but not limited to, faculty of a college of pharmacy accredited by an acceptable accrediting agency; or instructors who are authorities in the health sciences specially qualified, in the opinion of the State Board of Pharmacy, to conduct such courses; (d) has a method of assessing the learning of participants, and describes such method; and (e) will maintain records for at least six years from the date of completion of coursework, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, the name and curriculum vitae of the faculty, a record of attendance of licensed pharmacists in such course work, an outline of the course of instruction, date and location of the coursework, and the number of hours for completion of the coursework. In the event an approved sponsor discontinues operation, the governing body of such sponsor shall notify the department and shall transfer all such records as directed by the department. (iii) Sponsors that are approved by the department pursuant to the requirements of this paragraph shall be approved for a three-year term. (iv) The department may conduct site visits of or request information from a sponsor approved pursuant to the requirements of this paragraph to ensure compliance with such requirements, and a sponsor shall cooperate with the department in permitting such site visits and in providing such information. (v) A determination by the department that a sponsor approved pursuant to the requirements of this paragraph is not meeting the standards set forth in this paragraph shall result in the denial or termination of the approved status of the sponsor. (i) Fees. (1) At the beginning of each registration period, a mandatory continuing education fee of $45 shall be collected from licensees engaged in the practice of pharmacy in New York State, except for those exempt from the requirement pursuant to subparagraph (b)(2)(i) of this section. This fee shall be in addition to the registration fee required by section 6805 of the Education Law. (2) Licensees applying for a conditional registration, pursuant to the requirements of subdivision (e) of this section, shall pay a fee that is the same as and in addition to, the fee for the triennial registration required by section 6805 of the Education Law. In addition, such licensees shall pay the $45 mandatory continuing education fee. (3) Organizations desiring to offer continuing education to licensed pharmacists based upon a department review, pursuant to paragraph (h)(3) of this section, shall submit an application fee of $900 with its application for the issuance of a permit from the department to become an approved sponsor of a formal continuing education program. Application for a three-year renewal of the permit shall be accompanied by a fee of $900. 63.8 Registration of nonresident establishments. (a) Definitions. For purposes of this section and section 6808-b of the Education Law: (1) Nonresident establishment means any pharmacy, manufacturer or wholesaler located outside of New York State that ships, mails or delivers prescription drugs or devices to other establishments, authorized prescribers and/or patients residing in New York State. Such establishments shall include, but not be limited to, pharmacies that transact business through the use of the internet. (2) Isolated transaction means for pharmacies, 600 or fewer prescriptions per calendar year for drugs and/or other devices delivered into New York State, and for manufacturers and wholesalers, sales that total less than $10,000 in value, at wholesale per calendar year, for drugs and/or devices delivered into New York State, except that upon application by a nonresident establishment, the department may deem a transaction to be an isolated transaction, when such transaction is necessary to protect the public health by addressing a temporary emergency shortage of a prescription drug and/or device in New York State. (b) Registration requirements. (1) All nonresident establishments that ship, mail, or deliver prescription drugs and/or devices to other registered establishments, authorized prescribers, and/or patients into New York State shall be registered with the department in accordance with this section and section 6808-b of the Education Law, except that such registration shall not apply to intracompany transfers between any division, affiliate, subsidiaries, parent or other entities under complete common ownership and control, and except that such registration shall not apply to nonresident establishments that have been granted an exception under subdivision (e) of this section. (2) Application. Nonresident establishments shall apply to the department for registration upon forms prescribed by the department. The application for nonresident manufacturers or wholesalers of prescription drugs and/or devices shall be accompanied by a fee of $825. The application for nonresident pharmacies shall be accompanied by a fee of $345. (3) Renewal of registration. All registrations for nonresident establishments shall be renewed on dates set by the department. The triennial registration fee for the renewal of a registration of a nonresident manufacturer or wholesaler shall be $520 or a prorated share thereof, as determined by the department. The triennial registration fee for the renewal of a registration of a nonresident pharmacy shall be $260 or a prorated share thereof, as determined by the department. (4) Failure to register shall subject the nonresident establishment to the late fees set forth in section 6502(3) of the Education Law. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 68 (5) In order to be registered nonresident establishments shall: (i) be licensed and/or registered in good standing with the state of residence; (ii) maintain, in readily retrievable form, records of drugs and/or devices shipped into New York State; (iii) supply, upon request, all information needed by the department to carry out the department's responsibilities under law; (iv) comply with all statutory and regulatory requirements of the state where the nonresident establishment is located, for prescription drugs or devices shipped, mailed, or delivered into New York State, except for controlled substances shipped, mailed, or delivered into New York State, the nonresident pharmacy shall follow Federal law and New York State law; (v) designate a resident agent in this state for service of process pursuant to Rule 318 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules; and (vi) meet the following requirements of the Education Law to the extent that they pertain to the delivery of prescription drugs and devices into New York State: Education Law, sections 6802, 6810, 6811, 6811-b, 6813, 6814, 6815, 6816, 6816-a, 6817, 6822, 6824, and 6825. (6) Additional registration requirements for nonresident establishments that are pharmacies. (i) Toll-free number. Nonresident establishments that are pharmacies shall provide a toll-free telephone number that is available during normal business hours at least 40 hours per week, to enable communication between a patient in New York State and a pharmacist at the pharmacy who has access to the patient's records, and place such toll free number on a label affixed to each drug or device container. (ii) Drug retail price lists. Nonresident establishments that are pharmacies that sell prescription medications at retail shall meet the requirements of subdivisions (1), (2), (3), and (5) of section 6826 of the Education Law for a drug retail price list. Such pharmacies that offer to drugs to dispense prescription consumers in New York State through a website on the Internet shall post on such website a notice of the availability of the drug retail price list. Such registered pharmacies that offer to dispense prescription drugs to consumers in New York State through mail order shall include a printed notice with each delivery of a prescription drug informing the consumer of the availability of the drug retail price list and a toll-free telephone number to obtain the list. (c) Disciplinary action. (1) Nonresident pharmacies shall be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the requirements of subdivision (6) of section 6808-b of the Education Law, section 6510 of the Education Law and implementing regulations, including but not limited to section 3.3 and Part 17 of this Title. (2) A nonresident establishment shall be subject to disciplinary action for: (i)professional misconduct, defined in section 6509 of Education Law; as the (ii) unprofessional conduct, as defined in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12)(i)(a), (13), and (14) of subdivision (b) of section 29.1 of this Title; (iii) unprofessional conduct, as defined in paragraphs (1), (2), (4), (5), (6),(8), and (10) of subdivision (a) of section 29.2 of this Title; (iv) unprofessional conduct, as defined in paragraphs (16), (17), and (19) of subdivision (a) of section 29.7 of this Title; and (v) failure to meet the registration requirements prescribed in subdivision (b) of this section, any other requirements of this section, and the requirements of section 6808-b of the Education Law. (3) In a disciplinary action, a nonresident establishment shall be subject to revocation or suspension of its registration and other applicable penalties in accordance with Article 130 of the Education Law. (d) Notification of change of address or discontinuance. A registered nonresident establishment shall notify the department on forms prescribed by the department of a change of address of the establishment or the discontinuance of the establishment within 10 days after such change of address or discontinuance. (e) Exception to registration requirements. Upon application by a nonresident establishment, the department may grant an exception to the registration requirements of this section to a nonresident establishment that restricts its sale or dispensing of prescription drugs and/or devices to residents of New York State to isolated transactions, as defined in subdivision (a) of this section. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 69 CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS Title 21 Part 205 Guideline for State Licensing of Wholesale Prescription Drug Distributors §205.1. Scope. This part applies to any person, partnership, corporation, or business firm in a State engaging in the wholesale distribution of human prescription drugs in interstate commerce. §205.2. Purpose. The purpose of this part is to implement the Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 by providing minimum standards, terms, and conditions for the licensing by State licensing authorities of persons who engage in wholesale distributions in interstate commerce of prescription drugs. §205.3. Definitions. (a) Blood means whole blood collected from a single donor and processed either for transfusion or further manufacturing. (b) Blood component means that part of blood separated by physical or mechanical means. (c) Drug sample means a unit of a prescription drug that is not intended to be sold and is intended to promote the sale of the drug. (d) Manufacturer means anyone who is engaged in manufacturing, preparing, propagating, compounding, processing, packaging, repackaging, or labeling of a prescription drug. (e) Prescription drug means any human drug required by Federal law or regulation to be dispensed only by a prescription, including finished dosage forms and active ingredients subject to section 503(b) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. (f) Wholesale distribution and wholesale distributor means distribution of prescription drugs to persons other than a consumer or patient, but does not include: (1) Intracompany sales; (2) The purchase or other acquisition by a hospital or other health care entity that is a member of a group purchasing organization of a drug for its own use from the group purchasing organization or from other hospitals or health care entities that are members of such organizations; (3) The sale, purchase, or trade of a drug or an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a drug by a charitable organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to a nonprofit affiliate of the organization to the extent otherwise permitted by law; (4) The sale, purchase, or trade of a drug or an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a drug among hospitals or other health care entities that are under common control; for purposes of this section, common control means the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person or an organization, whether by ownership of stock, voting rights, by contract, or otherwise; (5) The sale, purchase, or trade of a drug or an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a drug for emergency medical reasons; for purposes of this section, emergency medical reasons includes transfers of prescription drugs by a retail pharmacy to another retail pharmacy to alleviate a temporary shortage; (6) The sale, purchase, or trade of a drug, an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a drug, or the dispensing of a drug pursuant to a prescription; (7) samples The distribution of drug by manufacturers’ representatives or representatives; or distributors’ (8) The sale, purchase, or trade of blood and blood components intended for transfusion. (g) Wholesale distributor means any one engaged in wholesale distribution of prescription drugs, including, but not limited to, manufacturers; repackers; ownlabel distributors; private-label distributors; jobbers; brokers; warehouses, including manufacturers’ and distributors’ warehouses, chain drug warehouses, and wholesale drug warehouses; independent wholesale drug traders; and retail pharmacies that conduct wholesale distributions. §205.4. Wholesale drug distributor licensing requirement. Every wholesale distributor in a State who engages in wholesale distributions of prescription drugs in interstate commerce must be licensed by the State licensing authority in accordance with this part before engaging in wholesale distributions of prescription drugs in interstate commerce. §205.5. Minimum required information for licensure. (a) The State licensing authority shall require the following minimum information from each wholesale drug distributor as part of the license described in §205.4 and as part of any renewal of such license: (1) The name, full business address, and telephone number of the licensee; (2) All trade or business names used by the licensee; (3) Addresses, telephone numbers, and the names of contact persons for Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 70 all facilities used by the licensee for the storage, handling, and distribution of prescription drugs; (4) The type of ownership or operation (i.e., partnership, corporation, or sole proprietorship); and (5) The name(s) of the owner and/or operator of the licensee, including: (i) If a person, the name of the person; (ii) If a partnership, the name of each partner, and the name of the partnership; (iii) If a corporation, the name and title of each corporate officer and director, the corporate names, and the name of the State of incorporation; and (iv) If a sole proprietorship, the full name of the sole proprietor and the name of the business entity. (b) The State licensing authority may provide for a single license for a business entity operating more than one facility within that State, or for a parent entity with divisions, subsidiaries, and/or affiliate companies within that State when operations are conducted at more than one location and there exists joint ownership and control among all the entities. (c) Changes in any information in paragraph (a) of this section shall be submitted to the State licensing authority as required by such authority. (Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 0910-0251) §205.6. Minimum qualifications. (a) The State licensing authority shall consider, at a minimum, the following factors in reviewing the qualifications of persons who engage in wholesale distribution of prescription drugs within the State: (1) Any convictions of the applicant under any Federal, State, or local laws relating to drug samples, wholesale or retail drug distribution, or distribution of controlled substances; (2) Any felony convictions of the applicant under Federal, State, or local laws; (3) The applicant’s past experience in the manufacture or distribution of prescription drugs, including controlled substances; (4) The furnishing by the applicant of false or fraudulent material in any application made in connection with drug manufacturing or distribution; (5) Suspension or revocation by Federal, State, or local government of any license currently or previously held by the applicant for the manufacture or distribution of any drugs, including controlled substances; (6) Compliance with licensing requirements under previously granted licenses, if any; (7) Compliance with requirements to maintain and/or make available to the State licensing authority or to Federal, State, or local law enforcement officials those records required under this section; and (8) Any other factors or qualifications the State licensing authority considers relevant to and consistent with the public health and safety. (b) The State licensing authority shall have the right to deny a license to an applicant if it determines that the granting of such a license would not be in the public interest. §205.7. Personnel. The State licensing authority shall require that personnel employed in wholesale distribution have appropriate education and/or experience to assume responsibility for positions related to compliance with State licensing requirements. §205.8. Violations and penalties. (a) State licensing laws shall provide for the suspension or revocation of licenses upon conviction of violations of Federal, State, or local drug laws or regulations, and may provide for fines, imprisonment, or civil penalties. (b) State licensing laws shall provide for suspension or revocation of licenses, where appropriate, for violations of its provisions. §205.50. Minimum requirements for the storage and handling of prescription drugs and for the establishment and maintenance of prescription drug distribution records. The State licensing law shall include the following minimum requirements for the storage and handling of prescription drugs, and for the establishment and maintenance of prescription drug distribution records by wholesale drug distributors and their officers, agents, representatives, and employees: (a) Facilities. All facilities at which prescription drugs are stored, warehoused, handled, held, offered, marketed, or displayed shall: (1) Be of suitable size and construction to facilitate cleaning, maintenance, and proper operations; (2) Have storage areas designed to provide adequate lighting, ventilation, temperature, sanitation, humidity, space, equipment, and security conditions; (3) Have a quarantine area for storage of prescription drugs that are outdated, damaged, deteriorated, misbranded, or adulterated, or that are in immediate or sealed, secondary containers that have been opened; (4) Be maintained in a clean and orderly condition; and (5) Be free from infestation by insects, rodents, birds, or vermin of any kind. (b) Security. (1) All facilities used for wholesale drug distribution shall be secure from unauthorized entry. (i) Access from outside the premises shall be kept to a minimum and be wellcontrolled. (ii) The outside perimeter of the premises shall be well-lighted. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 71 (iii) Entry into areas where prescription drugs are held shall be limited to authorized personnel. (2) All facilities shall be equipped with an alarm system to detect entry after hours. (3) All facilities shall be equipped with a security system that will provide suitable protection against theft and diversion. When appropriate, the security system shall provide protection against theft or diversion that is facilitated or hidden by tampering with computers or electronic records. (c) Storage. All prescription drugs shall be stored at appropriate temperatures and under appropriate conditions in accordance with requirements, if any, in the labeling of such drugs, or with requirements in the current edition of an official compendium, such as the United States Pharmacopeia/National Formulary (USP/NF). (1) If no storage requirements are established for a prescription drug, the drug may be held at “controlled” room temperature, as defined in an official compendium, to help ensure that its identity, strength, quality, and purity are not adversely affected. (2) Appropriate manual, electromechanical, or electronic temperature and humidity recording equipment, devices, and/or logs shall be utilized to document proper storage of prescription drugs. (3) The recordkeeping requirements in paragraph (f) of this section shall be followed for all stored drugs. (d) Examination of materials. (1) Upon receipt, each outside shipping container shall be visually examined for identity and to prevent the acceptance of contaminated prescription drugs or prescription drugs that are otherwise unfit for distribution. This examination shall be adequate to reveal container damage that would suggest possible contamination or other damage to the contents. (2) Each outgoing shipment shall be carefully inspected for identity of the prescription drug products and to ensure that there is no delivery of prescription drugs that have been damaged in storage or held under improper conditions. (3) The recordkeeping requirements in paragraph (f) of this section shall be followed for all incoming and outgoing prescription drugs. (e) Returned, damaged, and outdated prescription drugs. (1) Prescription drugs that are outdated, damaged, deteriorated, misbranded, or adulterated shall be quarantined and physically separated from other prescription drugs until they are destroyed or returned to their supplier. (2) Any prescription drugs whose immediate or sealed outer or sealed secondary containers have been opened or used shall be identified as such, and shall be quarantined and physically separated from other prescription drugs until they are either destroyed or returned to the supplier. (3) If the conditions under which a prescription drug has been returned cast doubt on the drug’s safety, identity, strength, quality, or purity, then the drug shall be destroyed, or returned to the supplier, unless examination, testing, or other investigation proves that the drug meets appropriate standards of safety, identity, strength, quality, and purity. In determining whether the conditions under which a drug has been returned cast doubt on the drug’s safety, identity, strength, quality, or purity, the wholesale drug distributor shall consider, among other things, the conditions under which the drug has been held, stored, or shipped before or during its return and the condition of the drug and its container, carton, or labeling, as a result of storage or shipping. (4) The recordkeeping requirements in paragraph (f) of this section shall be followed for all outdated, damaged, deteriorated, misbranded, or adulterated prescription drugs. (f) Recordkeeping. (1) Wholesale drug distributors shall establish and maintain inventories and records of all transactions regarding the receipt and distribution or other disposition of prescription drugs. These records shall include the following information: (i) The source of the drugs, including the name and principal address of the seller or transferor, and the address of the location from which the drugs were shipped; (ii) The identity and quantity of the drugs received and distributed or disposed of; and (iii) The dates of receipt and distribution or other disposition of the drugs. (2) Inventories and records shall be made available for inspection and photocopying by authorized Federal, State, or local law enforcement agency officials for a period of 2 years following disposition of the drugs. (3) Records described in this section that are kept at the inspection site or that can be immediately retrieved by computer or other electronic means shall be readily available for authorized inspection during the retention period. Records kept at a central location apart from the inspection site and not electronically retrievable shall be made available for inspection within 2 working days of a request by an authorized official of a Federal, State, or local law enforcement agency. (g) Written policies and procedures. Wholesale drug distributors shall establish, maintain, and adhere to written policies and procedures, which shall be followed for the receipt, security, storage, inventory, and distribution of prescription drugs, including policies and procedures for identifying, recording, and reporting losses or thefts, and for correcting all errors and inaccuracies in inventories. Wholesale drug distributors shall include in their written policies and procedures the following: (1) A procedure whereby the oldest approved stock of a prescription drug product is distributed first. The procedure may permit deviation from this requirement, if such deviation is temporary and appropriate. (2) A procedure to be followed for handling recalls and withdrawals of prescription drugs. Such procedure shall be adequate to deal with recalls and withdrawals due to: (i) Any action initiated at the request of the Food and Drug Administration or other Federal, State, or local law enforcement or Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 72 other government including the State agency; agency, licensing (ii) Any voluntary action by the manufacturer to remove defective or potentially defective drugs from the market; or (iii) Any action undertaken to promote public health and safety by replacing of existing merchandise with an improved product or new package design. (3) A procedure to ensure that wholesale drug distributors prepare for, protect against, and handle any crisis that affects security or operation of any facility in the event of strike, fire, flood, or other natural disaster, or other situations of local, State, or national emergency. (4) A procedure to ensure that any outdated prescription drugs shall be segregated from other drugs and either returned to the manufacturer or destroyed. This procedure shall provide for written documentation of the disposition of outdated prescription drugs. This documentation shall be maintained for 2 years after disposition of the outdated drugs. (h) Responsible persons. Wholesale drug distributors shall establish and maintain lists of officers, directors, managers, and other persons in charge of wholesale drug distribution, storage, and handling, including a description of their duties and a summary of their qualifications. (i) Compliance with Federal, State, and local law. Wholesale drug distributors shall operate in compliance with applicable Federal, State, and local laws and regulations. (1) Wholesale drug distributors shall permit the State licensing authority and authorized Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials to enter and inspect their premises and delivery vehicles, and to audit their records and written operating procedures, at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to the extent authorized by law. (2) Wholesale drug distributors that deal in controlled substances shall register with the appropriate State controlled substance authority and with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and shall comply with all applicable State, local, and DEA regulations. (j) Salvaging and reprocessing. Wholesale drug distributors shall be subject to the provisions of any applicable Federal, State, or local laws or regulations that relate to prescription drug product salvaging or reprocessing, including parts 207, 210, and 211 of this chapter. (Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 0910-0251) PUBLIC HEALTH LAW Part 80 Possession and Sale of Hypodermic Syringes and Hypodermic Needles §80.131 Prescription, sale and possession of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles. (a) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or furnish, to any other person or persons, a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle, except: (1) pursuant to a written prescription of a practitioner; or (2) to persons who have been authorized by the commissioner to obtain and possess such instruments; or (3) in an emergency, pursuant to an oral prescription from a practitioner, if the pharmacist complies with the requirements of subdivision (b) of this section. (4) pursuant to Section 80.137 of this Part (b) (1) In an emergency, a practitioner may orally prescribe and a pharmacist may dispense, to an ultimate user, syringes and hypodermic needles, provided however, the pharmacist shall: (i) contemporaneously reduce such oral prescription to a written memorandum indicating the name, address and phone number of the prescriber, name and address of the ultimate user, date on which the hypodermic needle and/or syringe was ordered, quantity prescribed, directions for use, and the fact that it is a telephone order; and (ii) the pharmacist filling such oral prescription shall indicate on the face of the memoranda the date filled, and the serial number of the prescription under which it is recorded in the pharmacy prescription file, and sign the memorandum. (2) The pharmacist shall make a good faith effort to verify the identity of both the practitioner and the ultimate user if not known to the pharmacist. (3) No oral prescription shall be filled for a quantity of hypodermic syringes and/or needles which would exceed a 10day supply. (4) Within 72 hours after authorizing such an oral prescription, the prescribing practitioner shall cause to be delivered to the pharmacist a written prescription. If the pharmacist fails to receive such prescription, he shall record on the oral prescription memorandum: “Written prescription not received”, and sign and date the recording. (5) Written follow-up prescriptions from prescribers shall be attached to the corresponding oral prescription memorandum and shall be filed in accordance with this section. (6) written The pharmacist receiving such follow-up prescriptions shall Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 73 endorse on the face of such prescription his signature, the date of filling, the serial number of the prescription under which it is recorded in the pharmacy prescription file and that such written prescription is a follow-up to the prior oral prescription. In addition, the pharmacist shall place on the back of the written follow-up prescription the date of receipt, the serial number and the date the oral prescription was filled, as follows: “Follow-up prescription to oral prescription, serial number ……, filled on …….., written prescription received …..” (c) Emergency means that the immediate furnishing of a hypodermic syringe and/or needle is necessary for proper treatment, that no alternative is available and it is not possible for the practitioner to provide a written prescription at the time. (d) It shall be unlawful for any person to obtain or possess a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle unless such possession has been authorized by the commissioner or is pursuant to a prescription. (e) include: A written prescription shall and the date and quantity dispensed and the signature of the dispensing pharmacist shall be recorded. §80.137 Expanded syringe demonstration program. (a) Definitions. (1)Authorized provider" for the purposes of this section shall mean any of the following who have registered with the Department: (i) a pharmacy licensed under article one hundred thirty-seven of the education law; (ii) a health care facility licensed under article twenty-eight of the public health law; or (iii) a health care practitioner who is otherwise authorized to prescribe the use of hypodermic needles or syringes within his or her scope of practice. (2) "Safety insert", for the purposes of this section, shall mean a document that is either developed or approved by the commissioner and shall contain, at a minimum, the following information: (i) information on the proper use of hypodermic syringes and needles; (ii) the risk of blood-borne diseases that may result from the use of hypodermic syringes and needles; (iii) methods for preventing the transmission or contraction of blood-borne diseases; (iv) proper disposal practices for hypodermic syringes and needles, including information on safe disposal and the relevant provisions of the environmental conservation law relating to the unlawful release of regulated medical waste; (v) the dangers of injection drug use and how to access drug treatment; (vi) a toll-free number for information on the human immunodeficiency virus; and (vii) a statement that it is legal for persons to possess syringes obtained pursuant to Article 33 of the Public Health Law. (b) Registration. access the Department in order to sell or furnish hypodermic needles and/or syringes without a prescription pursuant to this section. (2) Authorized providers must register with the Department in order to accept hypodermic needles and/or syringes for purposes of disposal. Failure of an entity to register shall not affect its obligations to accept needles and syringes originating from a private residence when such entity is already obliged to do so pursuant to Section 1389-dd of the Public Health Law. (3) Registration shall be limited to authorized providers in good standing and will consist of submission to the Department of a completed application in a form prescribed by the commissioner, and receipt of the acceptance from the commissioner of such registration, prior to the initiation of the selling or furnishing of hypodermic needles and syringes without a prescription and or accepting hypodermic needles and/or syringes for disposal. (4) The registration form must include, at a minimum, the following information: (i) the name, address, license number, telephone number and fax number (if available) of the authorized provider; (ii) the name, address, telephone and electronic mail address, if available, of the individual designated by the authorized provider to have administrative responsibility for the provider's participation in the expanded syringe access demonstration program; (iii) an attestation that the authorized provider will abide by the provisions of this section and the provisions contained in the registration form with regard to the selling or furnishing of hypodermic needles or syringes without a prescription; (iv) a description of how the registrant will cooperate in the safe disposal of used hypodermic needles or syringes, or will provide such services (pharmacies and health care practitioners are not required to provide such services); and (v) the signature of the individual authorized to sign the registration form on behalf of the applicant. (5) The registration period shall commence upon the acceptance of such registration by the commissioner and shall remain valid for a period to coincide with the maximum (1) the name, address and age of the person for whom intended; (2) the name, address, telephone number and signature of practitioner. (f) Any person selling or furnishing a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle pursuant to prescription shall record upon the face of the prescription, over his signature, the date of the sale or furnishing of the hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle. Prescriptions and oral prescription memorandums shall be retained on file for a period of five years and be readily accessible for inspection by any public officer or employee engaged in the enforcement of this section. A prescription may be refilled not more than the number of times specifically authorized by the prescriber upon the prescription; provided, however, no such authorization shall be effective for a period longer than two years from the date the prescription is signed. (g) All renewals shall be recorded on the reverse side of the written prescription (1) Authorized providers must register with Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 74 allowed at the time of registration under Section 3381 of the Public Health Law or until notice of termination by the Department. Authorized providers shall notify the Department of any changes in the information provided to the Department. Changes or corrections to such information shall be submitted to the Department by the completion of a revised registration form as soon as possible but no later than 30 days after such change. Should an authorized provider choose to withdraw its registration, written notification of such intent must be provided to the Department. Such withdrawal shall not be effective until receipt of such written notice is acknowledged by the Department in writing. (6) The name, address, and telephone number of the authorized provider may be used in the development of, or included in, a registry of authorized providers for the purpose of informing consumers of available authorized providers for the purposes of sale, furnishing, and/or disposal, as specified on the registration form. (c) Upon the finding of a violation of this section or when a registrant is no longer in good standing, the commissioner may suspend, for a period up to one year, an authorized provider's ability to sell or furnish hypodermic needles or syringes, or to accept hypodermic needles or syringes for disposal under this Section. Entities otherwise obliged to accept hypodermic needles or syringes for disposal pursuant to Section 1389-dd of the Public Health Law shall not be relieved from such obligation. (d) Requirements for authorized providers for the purpose of selling and furnishing of hypodermic needles and syringes without a prescription. (1) After acceptance of the registration by the commissioner, an authorized provider may obtain and possess such hypodermic syringes and needles for such purpose, provided that: (i) such sale or furnishing shall only be to a natural person eighteen years of age or older; (ii) each sale or furnishing is limited to a quantity of ten or less; and (iii) the sale or furnishing shall be accompanied by a safety insert as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section. Such insert shall be attached to or included in the hypodermic syringe and/or needle packaging, or provided in brochure form, at the point of sale or furnishing. (2) In addition, a pharmacy: (i) shall not advertise to the public the availability for retail or furnishing of hypodermic syringes and needles without a prescription; and (ii) shall, at any location where hypodermic syringes and needles are kept for retail furnishing, store such syringes and needles in a manner that makes them available only to authorized personnel and not openly available to customers. (e) Authorized providers that accept needles and/or syringes for purposes of disposal shall adhere to state and local public health and environmental conservation laws, rules, and regulations related to the disposal of regulated medical waste. (f) Possession. A natural person eighteen years of age or older may obtain and possess hypodermic syringes and needles obtained pursuant to this Section. (g) Applicability. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any sale, furnishing, or possession of hypodermic needles or syringes which is lawful under Section 3381(1)(a) or (b) of the Public Health Law. Article 33 – Title 7 Offenses, Violations and Enforcement § 3381. Sale and possession of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles. 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or furnish to another person or persons, a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle except: (a) pursuant to a written prescription of a practitioner; or (b) to persons who have been authorized by the commissioner to obtain and possess such instruments; or (c) by a pharmacy licensed under article one hundred thirty-seven of the education law, health care facility licensed under article twenty-eight of this chapter or a health care practitioner who is otherwise authorized to prescribe the use of hypodermic needles or syringes within his or her scope of practice; provided, however, that such sale or furnishing: (i) shall only be to a person eighteen years of age or older; (ii) shall be limited to a quantity of ten or less hypodermic needles or syringes; and (iii) shall be in accordance with subdivision six of this section. 2. It shall be unlawful for any person to obtain or possess a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle unless such possession has been authorized by the commissioner or is pursuant to a written prescription, or is pursuant to subdivision six of this section. 3. Any person selling or furnishing a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle pursuant to a prescription shall record upon the face of the prescription, over his signature, the date of the sale or furnishing of the hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle. Such prescription shall be retained on file for a period of five years and be readily accessible for inspection by any public officer or employee engaged in the enforcement of this section. Such prescription may be refilled not more than the number of times specifically authorized by the prescriber upon the prescription, provided however no such authorization shall be effective for a period greater than two years from the date the prescription is signed. 4. The commissioner shall, subject to subdivision six of this section, designate persons, or by regulation, classes of persons who may obtain hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles without prescription and the manner in which such transactions may take place and the records thereof which shall be maintained. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 75 5. (a) The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of alcoholism and substance abuse services, the commissioner of the department of correctional services, the commissioner of the division of criminal justice services, the commissioner of the office of general services, the commissioner of the office of mental health, the commissioner of the office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities and the director of the division for youth shall develop a limited number of cooperative pilot projects to test the practicality and effectiveness of the distribution of syringes for human injection which are intended for single use and which are non-reusable. Such pilot projects shall be demonstrated throughout the state in high risk clinical settings of state operated facilities such as prisons, hospitals, youth detention facilities, developmental centers and other state operated facilities as the commissioner, in consultation with the above listed commissioners and directors determine appropriate. (b) On or before June thirtieth, nineteen hundred ninety-eight, the commissioner and the commissioners and directors listed in paragraph (a) of his subdivision shall evaluate the pilot projects established pursuant to this subdivision, and shall submit a report of his or her evaluation to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, and the speaker of the assembly. 6. (a) A person eighteen years of age or older may obtain and possess a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of this section. (b) Subject to regulations of the commissioner, a pharmacy licensed under article one hundred thirty-seven of the education law, a health care facility licensed under article twenty-eight of this chapter or a health care practitioner who is otherwise authorized to prescribe the use of hypodermic needles or syringes within his or her scope of practice, may obtain and possess hypodermic needles or syringes for the purpose of selling or furnishing them pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of this section or for the purpose of disposing of them, provided that such pharmacy, health care facility or health care practitioner has registered with the department. (c) Sale or furnishing of hypodermic syringes or hypodermic needles to direct consumers pursuant to this subdivision by a pharmacy, health care facility, or health care practitioner shall be accompanied by a safety insert. Such safety insert shall be developed or approved by thecommissioner and shall include, but not be limited to, (i) information on the proper use of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles; (ii)the risk of blood borne diseases that may result from the use of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles; (iii) methods for preventingthe transmission or contraction of blood borne diseases; (iv) proper hypodermic syringe and hypodermic needle disposal practices; (v)information on the dangers of injection drug use, and how to access drug treatment; (vi) a toll-free phone number for information on the human immunodeficiency virus; and (vii) information on the safe disposal of hypodermic syringes and hypodermic needles including the relevant provisions of the environmental conservation law relating to the unlawful release of regulated medical waste. The safety insert shall be attached to or included in the hypodermic syringe and hypodermic needle packaging, or shall be given to the purchaser at the point of sale or furnishing in brochure form. (d) In addition to the requirements of paragraph (c) of subdivision one of this section, a pharmacy licensed under article one hundred thirty-seven of the education law may sell or furnish hypodermic needles or syringes only if such pharmacy: (i) does not advertise to the public the availability for retail sale or furnishing of hypodermic needles or syringes without a prescription; and (ii) at any location where hypodermic needles or syringes are kept for retail sale or furnishing, stores such needles and syringes in a manner that makes them available only to authorized personnel and not openly available to customers. (e) The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this subdivision which shall include a requirement that such pharmacies, health care facilities and health care practioners cooperate in a safe disposal of used hypodermic needles or syringes. (f) The commissioner may, upon the finding of a violation of this section, suspend for a determinate period of time the sale or furnishing of syringes by a specific entity. 7. The provisions of this section shall not apply to farmers engaged in livestock production or to those persons supplying farmers engaged in livestock production, provided that: (a) Hypodermic syringes and needles shall be stored in a secure, locked storage container. (b) At any time the department may request a document outlining: (i) the number of hypodermic needles and syringes purchased over the past calendar year; (ii) a record of all hypodermic needles used over the past calendar year; and (iii) a record of all hypodermic needles and syringes destroyed over the past calendar year. (c) Hypodermic needles and syringes shall be destroyed in a manner consistent with the provisions set forth in section thirty-three hundred eighty-one-a of this article. * NB Effective until September 1, 2007 Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 76 Part 415 Nursing Homes – Minimum Standards (Excerpts from Chapter V – Medical Facilities) §415.18 Pharmacy services. (a) The facility shall provide pharmaceutical services and develop and implement policies and procedures that assure the accurate acquisition, receipt, dispensing and administering of all drugs and biologicals required to meet the needs of each resident. The facility shall provide routine and emergency drugs and biologicals directly to its residents, or obtain them under a contract as described in section 400.4 of this Title. The facility shall be licensed under article 33 of the Public Health Law and Part 80 of this Title. (b) Service consultation. The facility shall employ or obtain the services of a registered pharmacist who: (1) provides consultation on all aspects of the provision of pharmacy services in the facility; (2) establishes a system of records of receipt and disposition of all controlled drugs; and (3) determines that drug records are in order and that an account of all controlled drugs is maintained and periodically reconciled consistent with the requirements of article 33 of the Public Health Law and Part 80 of this Title. (c) Drug regimen review. (1) The drug regimen of each resident shall be reviewed at least once a month by a registered pharmacist. (2) The pharmacist shall report any irregularities to the attending physician and the director of nursing, and these reports shall be acted upon promptly. The findings and corrective actions shall be regularly reviewed by the quality assessment and assurance committee established pursuant to section 415.27 of this Part. (3) Psychotropic drugs may be administered only on the orders of a physician and only as part of a plan of care, developed in accordance with sections 415.4, 415.11 and 415.12 of this Part, designed to eliminate or modify the symptoms for which the drugs are prescribed. (d) Labeling of drugs and biologicals. The facility shall label drugs and biologicals in accordance with currently accepted standards of practice and include the appropriate accessory and cautionary instructions and the expiration date. Labeling of all medications shall be in accordance with article 137 of the State Education Law and 8 NYCRR Part 29. Facilities which use a unit dose drug distribution system shall develop and implement an appropriate method of providing accessory and cautionary instructions. (e) Storage of drugs and biologicals. (1) The facility shall store all drugs and biologicals in locked compartments under proper temperature controls, and permit access only to authorized personnel. (2) The facility shall provide separately locked, permanently affixed, compartments for storage of controlled drugs and other drugs subject to abuse, except when the facility uses single unit package drug distribution systems in which the quantity stored is minimal and a missing dose can be readily detected. Storage of controlled substances shall be in accordance with article 33 of the Public Health Law and Part 80 of this Title. (3) Poisons and medications for “external use only” shall be kept in a locked cabinet and separate from other medications. (4) Medications whose shelf life has expired or which are otherwise no longer in use shall be disposed of or destroyed in accordance with State and Federal laws and regulations. (f) Return of unused medications. (1) When services are provided by a cooperating vendor pharmacy, the facility shall establish policies and procedures which permit either the staff registered pharmacist or consultant registered pharmacist to return to the vendor pharmacy from which it was purchased any unused medications or drug products, provided such medication is sealed in unopened, individually packaged, units and within the recommended period of shelf life for the purpose of redispensing and which are in accord with the following provisions: (i) Drug products which may be returned are limited to: (a) oral and parenteral medication in single-dose hermetically sealed containers from which no doses have been withdrawn. (b) parenteral medication in multiple-dose hermetically sealed containers from which no doses have been withdrawn. (ii) The drug products returned show no obvious sign of deterioration. (iii) Drug products packaged in manufacturer’s unit-dose packages may be returned for redispensing provided that they are redispensed in time for use before the expiration date, if any, indicated on the package. (iv) Drug products repackaged by the pharmacy into unit-dose or multiple-dose “blister packs” may be returned for redispensing provided that: (a) the date on which the drug product was repackaged, its lot number and expiration date are indicated clearly on the package; (b) not more than 90 days have elapsed from the date of the repackaging; (c) a repackaging log is maintained by the pharmacy in the case of drug products repackaged in advance of immediate needs. (v) “Blister packs”. (a) Partially used “blister packs” may be redispensed only Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 77 as returned. (b) Partially used “blister packs” may not be emptied and repackaged. (c) Additional units of medication may not be added to partially used “blister packs”. (vi) No drug product dispensed in bulk in a dispensing container may be returned. (vii) No medication or drug product defined as a controlled substance in section 3306 of the Public Health Law may be returned. (2) The vendor pharmacy to which such drug products are returned shall reimburse or credit the nursing home or purchaser of such drug products for the unused medication that is restocked and redispensed and shall not otherwise charge any individual resident or the State, if a resident is a recipient or beneficiary of a State-funded program, for unused medication or drug products returned for reimbursement or credit. (g) Emergency medications. The facility shall ensure the provision of (an) emergency medication kit(s) as follows: (1) The contents of each kit shall be approved by the medical director, pharmacist and director of nursing. (2) Controlled substances shall be prohibited in emergency kits. (3) The medication contents of each kit shall be limited to injectables except that the kit may also include: (i) sublingual nitroglycerin; and (ii) up to five noninjectable, prepackaged medications, not to exceed a 24-hour supply, which are the same noninjectable, prepackaged medications in all emergency kits throughout the facility. (4) Each kit shall be kept and secured within or near the nurses’ station. (h) Medications for leaves. Medication shall be released to discharged residents or to a resident going on temporary leave. The medication supply in the facility may be used to supply the medications needed for a temporary leave of absence. (i) Verbal orders. All medications administered to residents shall be ordered in writing by a legally authorized practitioner unless unusual circumstances justify a verbal order, in which case the verbal order shall be given to a licensed nurse, or to a licensed pharmacist, immediately reduced to writing, authenticated by the nurse or registered pharmacist and countersigned by the prescriber within 48 hours. In the event a verbal order is not signed by the prescriber or a designated alternate physician within 48 hours, the order shall be terminated and the facility shall ensure that the resident’s medication needs are promptly evaluated by the medical director or another legally authorized prescribing practitioner. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 78 Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of this publication.. 79 LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS APPLICABLE TO ALL PROFESSIONS EDUCATION LAW Article 130 General Provisions Subarticle 1 Introductory Summary §6500. Introduction. This title provides for the regulation of the admission to and the practice of certain professions. This first article applies to all the professions included in this title, except that prehearing procedures and hearing procedures in connection with the regulation of professional conduct of the profession of medicine and physician’s assistants and specialist’s assistants shall be conducted pursuant to the provisions of Title II-A of article two of the public health law. Each of the remaining articles applies to a particular profession. §6501. Admission (licensing). to a profession transmitted to such corporation by the department prior to the date on which such license is issued. §6502. Duration and registration of a license. 1. A license shall be valid during the life of the holder unless revoked, annulled or suspended by the board of regents or in the case of physicians, physicians practicing under a limited permit, physician’s assistants, specialist's assistants and medical residents, the licensee is stricken from the roster of such licensees by the board of regents on the order of the state board for professional medical conduct in the department of health. A licensee must register with the department and meet the requirements prescribed in section 3-503 of the general obligations law to practice in this state. 2. The department shall establish the beginning dates of the registration periods for each profession and mail an application for registration conforming to the requirements of section 3-503 of the general obligations law to every licensee currently registered at least four months prior to the beginning of the registration period for the respective profession. 3. An application for registration and the required registration fee shall be submitted together with or as a part of the application for a license. A person initially licensed or a licensee resuming practice after a lapse of registration during the last two years of a triennial registration period shall receive a prorated refund of one-third of the total registration fee for each full year of the triennial period that has elapsed prior to the date of registration. Except as provided in subdivision three-a of this section, the department shall renew the registration of each licensee upon receipt of a proper application, on a form prescribed by the department and conforming to the requirements of section 3-503 of the general obligation law, and the registration fee. Any licensee who fails to register by the beginning of the appropriate registration period shall be required to pay an additional fee for late filing of ten dollars for each month that registration has been delayed. No licensee resuming practice after a lapse of registration shall be permitted to practice without actual possession of the registration certificate. 3-a. Prior to issuing any registration pursuant to this section and section sixtyfive hundred twenty-four of this chapter, the department shall request and review any information relating to an applicant which reasonably appears to relate to professional misconduct in his or her professional practice in this and any other jurisdiction. The department shall advise the director of the office of professional medical conduct in the department of health of any information about an applicant which reasonably appears to be professional misconduct as defined in sections sixty-five hundred thirty and sixtyfive hundred thirty-one of this chapter, within seven days of its discovery. The registration or re-registration of such applicant shall not be delayed for a period exceeding thirty days unless the director finds a basis for recommending summary action pursuant to subdivision twelve of section two hundred thirty of the public health law after consultation with a committee on professional conduct of the state board for professional medical conduct, if warranted. Re-registration shall be issued if the commissioner of health fails to issue a summary order pursuant to subdivision twelve of section two hundred Admission to practice of a profession in this state is accomplished by a license being issued to a qualified applicant by the education department. To qualify for a license an applicant shall meet the requirements prescribed in the article for the particular profession and shall meet the requirements prescribed in section 3-503 of the general obligations law. §6501-a. Disclosure with respect to loans made or guaranteed by the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation. Every application for a license issued pursuant to the provisions of this article shall contain a question inquiring whether the applicant has any loans made or guaranteed by the New York state higher education services corporation currently outstanding, and if so, whether such applicant is presently in default on any such loan. The name and address of any applicant who answers either or both of such questions in the affirmative shall be Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 80 thirty of the public health law within ninety days of notice by the department pursuant to this subdivision. Re-registration shall be denied if the commissioner of health issues a summary order pursuant to subdivision twelve of section two hundred thirty of the public health law. 4. Any licensee who is not engaging in the practice of his profession in this state and does not desire to register shall so advise the department. Such licensee shall not be required to pay an additional fee for failure to register at the beginning of the registration period. 5. Licensees shall notify the department of any change of name or mailing address within thirty days of such change. Failure to register or provide such notice within one hundred eighty days of such change shall be willful failure under section sixty-five hundred thirty of this chapter. 6. The fee for replacement of a lost registration certificate or license or for registration of an additional office shall be ten dollars. 7. An additional fee of twenty-five dollars shall be charged for the licensure or registration of any applicant who submits a bad check to the department. §6503. Practice of a profession. Admission to the practice of a profession (1) entitles the licensee to practice the profession as defined in the article for the particular profession, (2) entitles the individual licensee to use the professional title as provided in the article for the particular profession, and (3) subjects the licensee to the procedures and penalties for professional misconduct as prescribed in this article (sections sixty-five hundred nine, sixty-five hundred ten, and sixty-five hundred eleven). §6504. Regulation of the professions. Admission to the practice of the professions (licensing) and regulation of such practice shall be supervised by the board of regents (section sixty-five hundred six) and administered by the education department (section sixty-five hundred seven), assisted by a state board for each profession (section sixty-five hundred eight). §6505. Construction. No definition of the practice of a profession shall be construed to restrain or restrict the performance of similar acts authorized in the definition of other professions. §6505-a. Professional referrals. There shall be no monetary liability on the part of, and no cause of action for damages shall arise against, any association or society of professionals authorized to practice under this title, or any employee, agent, or member thereof, for referring any person to a member of the profession represented by such association or society provided that such referral was made without charge as a service to the public, and without malice, and in the reasonable belief that such referral was warranted, based upon the facts disclosed. §6505-b. Course work or training in infection control practices. Every dentist, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, podiatrist, optometrist and dental hygienist practicing in the state shall, on or before July first, nineteen hundred ninety-four and every four years thereafter, complete course work or training appropriate to the professional’s practice approved by the department regarding infection control and barrier precautions, including engineering and work practice controls, in accordance with regulatory standards promulgated by the department, in consultation with the department of health, which shall be consistent, as far as appropriate, with such standards adopted by the department of health pursuant to section two hundred thirty-eight of the public health law to prevent the transmission of HIV/HBV in the course of professional practice. Each such professional shall document to the department at the time of registration commencing with the first registration after July first, nineteen hundred ninety-four that the professional has completed course work or training in accordance with this section, provided, however that a professional subject to the provisions of paragraph (f) of subdivision one of section twenty-eight hundred five-k of the public health law shall not be required to so document. The department shall provide an exemption from this requirement to anyone who requests such an exemption and who (i) clearly demonstrates to the department’s satisfaction that there would be no need for him or her to complete such course work or training because of the nature of his or her practice or (ii) that he or she has completed course work or training deemed by the department to be equivalent to the course work or training approved by the department pursuant to this section. The department shall consult with organizations representative of professions, institutions and those with expertise in infection control and HIV and HBV with respect to the regulatory standards promulgated pursuant to this section. Subarticle 2 State Management §6506. Supervision by the Board of Regents The board of regents shall supervise the admission to and the practice of the professions. In supervising, the board of regents may: (1) Promulgate rules, except that no rule shall be promulgated concerning article 131-A of this chapter; (2) Establish by rule, high school, preprofessional, professional and other educational qualifications required for licensing in the professions regulated by this title; (3) Charter schools offering educational programs for the professions regulated by this title, and no such school shall operate in this state without such a charter, except Columbia University, any school chartered by special act of the legislature prior to September one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, and schools specifically authorized to conduct such programs by the regents; (4) Appoint such committees as it deems necessary and compensate members of such committees who are not members of the board of regents or the department up to Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 81 one hundred dollars per day for each day devoted to committee functions, together with their necessary expenses; (5) Waive education, experience and examination requirements for a professional license prescribed in the article relating to the profession, provided the board of regents shall be satisfied that the requirements of such article have been substantially met; (6) Endorse a license issued by a licensing board of another state or country upon the applicant fulfilling the following requirements: (a) Application: file an application with the department; (b) Education: meet educational requirements in accordance with the commissioner’s regulations; (c) Experience: have experience satisfactory to the board and in accordance with the commissioner's regulations; (d) Examination: pass an examination satisfactory to the board and in accordance with the commissioner's regulations; (e) Age: be at least twenty-one years of age; (f) Citizenship or immigration status: be a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States; (g) Character: be of good moral character as determined by the department; and (7) Direct the department to remedy any error, omission, delay or other circumstance in the issuance or registration of a license; (8) Designate a professional conduct officer, who shall be the chief administrative officer of the office of the professions, or his designee, in connection with professional licensing and misconduct proceedings and criminal matters, such officer to be empowered to issue subpoenas and administer oaths in connection with such proceedings; (9) Establish by rule, standards of conduct with respect to advertising, fee splitting, practicing under a name other than that of the individual licensee (when not specifically authorized), proper use of academic or professional degrees or titles tending to imply professional status, and such other ethical practices as such board shall deem necessary, except that no rule shall be established concerning article 131-A of this chapter; and (10) Delegate to department officers the disposition of any licensing matters pursuant to rules. §6507. Administration by the Education Department. 1. The commissioner and the department shall administer the admission to and the practice of the professions. 2. In administering, the commissioner may: a. Promulgate regulations, except that no regulations shall be promulgated concerning article 131-A of this chapter; b. Conduct investigations; c. Issue subpoenas; d. Grant immunity from prosecution in accordance with section 50.20 of the criminal procedure law to anyone subpoenaed in any investigation or hearing conducted pursuant to this title; and e. Excuse, for cause acceptable to the commissioner, the failure to register with the department. Such excuse shall validate and authorize such practitioner's right to practice pending registration. 3. The department assisted by the board for each profession, shall: a. Establish standards for preprofessional and professional education, experience and licensing examinations as required to implement the article for each profession. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the commissioner shall establish standards requiring that all persons applying, on or after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-one, initially, or for the renewal of, a license, registration or limited permit to be a physician, chiropractor, dentist, registered nurse, podiatrist, optometrist, psychiatrist, psychologist or dental hygienist shall, in addition to all the other licensure, certification or permit requirements, have completed two hours of coursework or training regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and maltreatment. The coursework or training shall be obtained from an institution or provider which has been approved by the department to provide such coursework or training. The coursework or training shall include information regarding the physical and behavioral indicators of child abuse and maltreatment and the statutory reporting requirements set out in sections four hundred thirteen through four hundred twenty of the social services law, including but not limited to, when and how a report must be made, what other actions the reporter is mandated or authorized to take, the legal protections afforded reporters, and the consequences for failing to report. Each applicant shall provide the department with documentation showing that he or she has completed the required training. The department shall provide an exemption from the child abuse and maltreatment training requirements to any applicant who requests such an exemption and who shows, to the department's satisfaction, that there would be no need because of the nature of his or her practice for him or her to complete such training; b. Review qualifications in connection with licensing requirements; and c. Provide for licensing examinations and reexaminations. 4. The department shall: a. Register or approve educational programs designed for the purpose of providing professional preparation which meet standards established by the department. b. Issue licenses, registrations, and limited permits to qualified applicants; c. (i) Issue a certificate of authority to a qualified professional service corporation being organized under section fifteen hundred three of the business corporation law or to a university faculty practice corporation being organized under section fourteen hundred twelve of the not-for-profit corporation law on payment of a fee of ninety dollars, (ii) file a certified copy of each certificate of incorporation and amendment thereto within thirty days after the filing of such certificate or Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 82 amendment on payment of a fee of twenty dollars, (iii) file the annual statement required by section fifteen hundred fourteen of the business corporation law on payment of a fee of thirty-five dollars (iv) as of July first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight, file a triennial statement required on payment of a fee of one hundred five dollars. The first triennial period shall commence on July first, nineteen hundred eighty-eight. d. Revoke limited permits on the recommendation of the committee on professional conduct for the profession concerned, except for limited permits issued to physicians, physician's assistants and specialist's assistants which shall be subject to sections two hundred thirty, two hundred thirty-a, two hundred thirty-b and two hundred thirty-c of the public health law; e. Maintain public records of licenses issued and retain in its files identifying data concerning each person to whom a license has been issued; f. Collect the fees prescribed by this title or otherwise provided by law; g. Prepare an annual report for the legislature, the governor and other executive offices, the state boards for the professions, professional societies, consumer agencies and other interested persons. Such report shall include but not be limited to a description and analysis of the administrative procedures and operations of the department based upon a statistical summary relating to (i) new licensure, (ii) discipline, (iii) complaint, investigation, and hearing backlog, (iv) budget, and (v) the state boards for the professions. Information provided shall be enumerated by profession; and h. Establish an administrative unit which shall be responsible for the investigation, prosecution and determination of alleged violations of professional conduct. 5. The commissioner and the department shall perform any other functions necessary to implement this title. §6508. Assistance by state boards for the professions. 1. A board for each profession shall be appointed by the board of regents on the recommendation of the commissioner for the purpose of assisting the board of regents and the department on matters of professional licensing, practice, and conduct. The composition of each board shall be as prescribed in the article relating to each profession. Within each board a committee on licensing may be appointed by the board chairman. Except as provided in paragraph (a) of this subdivision, the membership of each professional licensing board shall be increased by one member, and each such board shall have at least one public representative who shall be selected by the board of regents from the general public. a. The membership of the professional licensing boards created under sections sixty-five hundred twenty-three, sixty-eight hundred four, sixty-nine hundred three, and seventy-four hundred three of this chapter shall be increased by two members, and each such board shall have at least two public representatives, who shall be selected by the board of regents from the general public. b. For the purposes of this title, a "public representative" shall be a person who is a consumer of services provided by those licensed or otherwise supervised or regulated by the boards created hereunder, and shall not be, nor within five years immediately preceding appointment have been: (i) a licensee or person otherwise subject to the supervision or regulation of the board to which appointed; or (ii) a person maintaining a contractual relationship with a licensee of such board, which would constitute more than two percentum of the practice or business of any such licensee, or an officer, director, or representative of such person or group of persons. 2. Each board, or its committee on licensing, shall select or prepare examinations, may conduct oral and practical examinations and reexaminations, shall fix passing grades, and assist the department in other licensing matters as prescribed by the board of regents. 3. Each board shall conduct disciplinary proceedings as prescribed in this article and shall assist in other professional conduct matters as prescribed by the board of regents. 4. Members of each board shall be appointed by the board of regents for five-year terms except that the terms of those first appointed shall be arranged so that as nearly as possible an equal number shall terminate annually. A vacancy occurring during a term shall be filled by an appointment by the board of regents for the unexpired term. Each state professional association or society may nominate one or more candidates for each appointment to be made to the board for its profession, but the board of regents shall not be required to appoint candidates so nominated. Former members of a board may be re-appointed by the board of regents, on the recommendation of the commissioner, to serve as members of the board solely for the purposes of disciplinary proceedings, proceedings relating to the moral character of an applicant for licensure, and proceedings relating to applications for the restoration of a professional license. 5. Each member of a board shall receive a certificate of appointment, shall before beginning his term of office file a constitutional oath of office with the secretary of state, shall receive up to one hundred dollars as prescribed by the board of regents for each day devoted to board work, and shall be reimbursed for his necessary expenses. Any member may be removed from a board by the board of regents for misconduct, incapacity or neglect of duty. 6. Each board shall elect from its members a chairman and vice-chairman annually, shall meet upon call of the chairman or the department, and may adopt bylaws consistent with this title and approved by the board of regents. A quorum for the transaction of business by the board shall be a majority of members but not less than five members. 7. An executive secretary to each board shall be appointed by the board of regents on recommendation of the commissioner. Such executive secretary shall not be a member of the board, shall hold office at the pleasure of, and shall have the powers, duties and annual salary prescribed by the board of regents. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 83 Subarticle 3 Professional Misconduct §6509. Definitions misconduct. of professional medicine revoked, suspended or having other disciplinary action taken, or having his application for a license refused, revoked or suspended or having voluntarily or otherwise surrendered his license after a disciplinary action was instituted by a duly authorized professional disciplinary agency of another state, where the conduct resulting in the revocation, suspension or other disciplinary action involving the license or refusal, revocation or suspension of an application for a license or the surrender of the license would, if committed in New York state, constitute professional misconduct under the laws of New York state. (6) Refusing to provide professional service to a person because of such person’s race, creed, color, or national origin, (7) Permitting, aiding or abetting an unlicensed person to perform activities requiring a license, (8) Practicing the profession while the license is suspended, or wilfully failing to register or notify the department of any change of name or mailing address, or, if a professional service corporation wilfully failing to comply with sections fifteen hundred three and fifteen hundred fourteen of the business corporation law or, if a university faculty practice corporation wilfully failing to comply with paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of section fifteen hundred three and section fifteen hundred fourteen of the business corporation law, (9) Committing unprofessional conduct, as defined by the board of regents in its rules or by the commissioner in regulations approved by the board of regents, (10) A violation of section twenty-eight hundred three-d or twenty-eight hundred five-k of the public health law. (11) A violation of section six thousand five hundred five-b of this chapter by a professional other than a professional subject to the provisions of paragraph (f) of subdivision one of section twenty-eight hundred five-k of the public health law. (12) In the event that the department of environmental conservation has reported to the department alleged misconduct by an architect or professional engineer in making a certification under section nineteen of the tax law (relating to the green building tax credit) the board of regents, upon a hearing and a finding of willful misconduct, may revoke the license of such professional or prescribe such other penalty as it determines to be appropriate. §6509-a. Additional definition of professional misconduct; limited application. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this article or of any other provision of law to the contrary, the license or registration of a person subject to the provisions of articles one hundred thirty-two, one hundred thirty-three, one hundred thirty-six, one hundred thirty-seven, one hundred thirty-nine, one hundred forty-one, one hundred forty-three, one hundred forty-four, one hundred fifty-six, one hundred fifty-nine and one hundred sixty-four of this chapter may be revoked, suspended or annulled or such person may be subject to any other penalty provided in section sixty-five hundred eleven of this article in accordance with the provisions and procedure of this article for the following: That any person subject to the above enumerated articles, has directly or indirectly requested, received or participated in the division, transference, assignment, rebate, splitting or refunding of a fee for, or has directly requested, received or profited by means of a credit or other valuable consideration as a commission, discount or gratuity in connection with the furnishing of professional care, or service, including x-ray examination and treatment, or for or in connection with the sale, rental, supplying or furnishing of clinical laboratory services or supplies, x-ray laboratory services or supplies, inhalation therapy service or equipment, ambulance service, hospital or medical supplies, physiotherapy or other therapeutic service or equipment, artificial limbs, teeth or eyes, orthopedic or surgical appliances or supplies, optical appliances, supplies or equipment, devices for aid of hearing, drugs, medication or medical supplies or any other goods, services or supplies prescribed for medical diagnosis, care or treatment under this chapter, except payment, not to exceed thirty-three and one-third per centum of any fee received for Each of the following is professional misconduct, and any licensee found guilty of such misconduct under the procedures prescribed in section sixty-five hundred ten shall be subject to the penalties prescribed in section sixty-five hundred eleven: (1) Obtaining the license fraudulently, (2) Practicing the profession fraudulently, beyond its authorized scope, with gross incompetence, with gross negligence on a particular occasion or negligence or incompetence on more than one occasion, (3) Practicing the profession while the ability to practice is impaired by alcohol, drugs, physical disability, or mental disability, (4) Being habitually drunk or being dependent on, or a habitual user of narcotics, barbiturates, amphetamines, hallucinogens, or other drugs having similar effects, (5) (a) Being convicted of committing an act constituting a crime under: (i) New York State law or, (ii) Federal law or, (iii) The law of another jurisdiction and which, if committed within this state, would have constituted a crime under New York State law; (b) Having been found guilty of improper professional practice or professional misconduct by a duly authorized professional disciplinary agency of another state where the conduct upon which the finding was based would, if committed in New York state, constitute professional misconduct under the laws of New York state; (c) Having been found by the commissioner of health to be in violation of article thirty-three of the public health law. (d) Having his license to practice Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 84 x-ray examination, diagnosis or treatment, to any hospital furnishing facilities for such examination, diagnosis or treatment. Nothing contained in this section shall prohibit such persons from practicing as partners, in groups or as a professional corporation or as a university faculty practice corporation nor from pooling fees and moneys received, either by the partnerships, professional corporations, university faculty practice corporations or groups by the individual members thereof, for professional services furnished by any individual professional member, or employee of such partnership, corporation or group, nor shall the professionals constituting the partnerships, corporations or groups be prohibited from sharing, dividing or apportioning the fees and moneys received by them or by the partnership, corporation or group in accordance with a partnership or other agreement; provided that no such practice as partners, corporations or in groups or pooling of fees or moneys received or shared, division or apportionment of fees shall be permitted with respect to care and treatment under the workers` compensation law except as expressly authorized by the workers` compensation law. Nothing contained in this chapter shall prohibit a medical or dental expense indemnity corporation pursuant to its contract with the subscriber from prorationing a medical or dental expense indemnity allowance among two or more professionals in proportion to the services rendered by each such professional at the request of the subscriber, provided that prior to payment thereof such professionals shall submit both to the medical or dental expense indemnity corporation and to the subscriber statements itemizing the services rendered by each such professional and the charges therefor. §6509-b. Additional definition of professional misconduct; arrears in payment of support; limited application. 1. The provisions of this section shall apply in all cases of licensee or registrant arrears in payment of child support or combined child and spousal support referred to the board of regents by a court pursuant to the requirements of section two hundred forty-four-c of the domestic relations law or pursuant to section four hundred fifty-eight-b of the family court act. 2. Upon receipt of an order from the court pursuant to one of the foregoing provisions of law, the board of regents, if it finds such person to be so licensed or registered, shall within thirty days of receipt of such order from the court, provide notice to the licensee or registrant of, and cause the regents review committee to initiate, a hearing which shall be held at least twenty days and no more than thirty days after the sending of such notice to the licensee or registrant. The hearing shall be held solely for the purpose of determining whether there exists as of the date of the hearing proof that full payment of all arrears of support established by the order of the court to be due from the licensee or registrant have been paid. Proof of such payment shall be a certified check showing full payment of established arrears or a notice issued by the court or by the support collection unit where the order is payable to the support collection unit designated by the appropriate social services district. Such notice shall state that full payment of all arrears of support established by the order of the court to be due have been paid. The licensee or registrant shall be given full opportunity to present such proof of payment at the hearing in person or by counsel. The only issue to be determined by the regents review committee as a result of the hearing is whether the arrears have been paid. No evidence with respect to the appropriateness of the court order or ability of the respondent party in arrears to comply with such order shall be received or considered by the committee. 3. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this article or of any other provision of law to the contrary, the license or registration of a person subject to the provisions of this title and/or subject to the provisions of title two-A of article two of the public health law shall be suspended if, at the hearing provided for by subdivision two of this section, the licensee or registrant fails to present proof of payment as required by such subdivision. Such suspension shall not be lifted unless the court or the support collection unit, where the court order is payable to the support collection unit designated by the appropriate social services district, issues notice to the regents review committee that full payment of all arrears of support established by the order of the court to be due have been paid. 4. The board of regents shall inform the court of all actions taken hereunder as required by law. 5. This section applies to support obligations paid pursuant to any order of child support or child and spousal support issued under provisions of article three-A or section two hundred thirty-six or two hundred forty of the domestic relations law, or article four, five or five-A of the family court act. 6. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this article or of any other provision of law to the contrary, the provisions of this section shall apply to the exclusion of any other requirements of this article and to the exclusion of any other requirement of law to the contrary. 6509-c. Additional definition of professional misconduct; failure to comply in paternity or child support proceedings; limited application. 1. The provisions of this section shall apply in all cases of licensee or registrant failure after receiving appropriate notice, to comply with a summons, subpoena or warrant relating to a paternity or child support proceeding referred to the board of regents by a court pursuant to the requirements of section two hundred fortyfour-c of the domestic relations law or pursuant to section four hundred fifty-eightb or five hundred forty-eight-b of the family court act. 2. Upon receipt of an order from the court pursuant to one of the foregoing provisions of law, the board of regents, if it finds such person to be so licensed or registered, shall within thirty days of receipt of such order from the court, provide notice to the licensee or registrant that his or her license or registration shall be suspended in sixty days unless the conditions as set forth in subdivision three of this section are met. 3. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this article or of any other provision of law to the contrary, the license or registration of a person subject to the provisions of this title and/or subject to the provisions of title two-A of article two of the public health law shall be suspended unless the court terminates its order to commence suspension proceedings. Such suspension shall not be lifted unless the court issues an order to the board of regents terminating its order to commence suspension proceedings. 4. The board of regents shall inform the court of all actions taken hereunder as required by law. 5. This section applies to paternity or child support proceedings commenced under, and support obligations paid pursuant to any order of child support or child and Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 85 spousal support issued under provisions of section two hundred thirty-six or two hundred forty of the domestic relations law, or article four, five, five-A or five-B of the family court act. 6. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this article or of any other provision of law to the contrary, the provisions of this section shall apply to the exclusion of any other requirements of this article and to the exclusion of any other requirement of law to the contrary. §6510. Proceedings in professional misconduct. cases of proceedings other than those terminated by an administrative warning pursuant to paragraph a of subdivision two of this section, the department shall prepare the charges. The charges shall state the alleged professional misconduct and shall state concisely the material facts but not the evidence by which the charges are to be proved. d. Service of charges and of notice of hearing. A copy of the charges and notice of any hearing pursuant to subdivision two or three of this section shall be served on the licensee personally by the department at least fifteen days before the hearing. If personal service cannot be made after due diligence and such fact is certified under oath, a copy of the charges and the notice of hearing shall be served by certified mail, return receipt requested to the licensee's last known address by the department at least twenty days before the hearing. e. Records and reports as public information. In all disciplinary proceedings brought pursuant to this section or in any voluntary settlement of a complaint between the licensee and the department, the department shall notify the licensee in writing that the record and reports of such disciplinary proceeding or of such voluntary settlement shall be considered matters of public information unless specifically excepted in this article, or in any other law or applicable rule or regulation. 2. Expedited procedures. a. Violations. Violations involving professional misconduct of a minor or technical nature may be resolved by expedited procedures as provided in paragraph b or c of this subdivision. For purposes of this subdivision, violations of a minor or technical nature shall include, but shall not be limited to, isolated instances of violations concerning professional advertising or record keeping, and other isolated violations which do not directly affect or impair the public health, welfare or safety. The board of regents shall make recommendations to the legislature on or before June first, nineteen hundred eighty-one, for the further definition of violations of a minor or technical nature. The initial instance of any violation of a minor or technical nature may be resolved by the issuance of an administrative warning pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision. Subsequent instances of similar violations of a minor or technical nature within a period of three years may be resolved by the procedure set forth in paragraph c of this subdivision. b. Administrative warning. If a professional conduct officer, after consultation with a professional member of the state board, determines that there is substantial evidence of professional misconduct but that it is an initial violation of a minor or technical nature which would not justify the imposition of a more severe disciplinary penalty, the matter may be terminated by the issuance of an administrative warning. Such warnings shall be confidential and shall not constitute an adjudication of guilt or be used as evidence that the licensee is guilty of the alleged misconduct. However, in the event of a further allegation of similar misconduct by the same licensee, the matter may be reopened and further proceedings instituted as provided in this section. c. Determination of penalty on uncontested minor violations. If a professional conduct officer, after consultation with a professional member of the state board, determines that there is substantial evidence of a violation of a minor or technical nature, and of a nature justifying a penalty as specified in this paragraph, the department may prepare and serve charges either by personal service or by certified mail, return receipt requested. Such charges shall include a statement that unless an answer is received within twenty days denying the charges, the matter shall be referred to a violations committee consisting of five members of the state board for the profession, at least one of whom shall be a public representative for determination. The violations panel shall be appointed by the executive secretary of the state board. The licensee shall be given at least fifteen days notice of the time and place of the meeting of the violations committee and shall have the right to appear in person and by an attorney and to make a statement to the committee in mitigation or explanation of the misconduct. The department may appear and make a statement in support of its position. The violations committee may issue a censure and reprimand, and in addition, or in the alternative, may impose a fine In cases of professional misconduct the proceedings shall be as follows: 1. Preliminary procedures. a. Complaint. A complaint of a licensee's professional misconduct may be made by any person to the education department. b. Investigation. The department shall investigate each complaint which alleges conduct constituting professional misconduct. The results of the investigation shall be referred to the professional conduct officer designated by the board of regents pursuant to section sixty-five hundred six of this article. If such officer decides that there is not substantial evidence of professional misconduct or that further proceedings are not warranted, no further action shall be taken. If such officer, after consultation with a professional member of the applicable state board for the profession, determines that there is substantial evidence of professional misconduct, and that further proceedings are warranted, such proceedings shall be conducted pursuant to this section. If the complaint involves a question of professional expertise, then such officer may seek, and if so shall obtain, the concurrence of at least two members of a panel of three members of the applicable board. The department shall cause a preliminary review of every report made to the department pursuant to section twenty-eight hundred three-e as added by chapter eight hundred sixty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty and sections forty-four hundred fiveb of the public health law and three hundred fifteen of the insurance law, to determine if such report reasonably appears to reflect conduct warranting further investigation pursuant to this subdivision. c. Charges. In all disciplinary Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 86 not to exceed five hundred dollars for each specification of minor, or technical misconduct. If the fine is not paid within three months the matter may be reopened and shall be subject to the hearing and regents decision procedures of this section. The determination of the panel shall be final and shall not be subject to the regents decision procedures of this section. If an answer is filed denying the charges, the matter shall be processed as provided in subdivision three of this section. d. Convictions of crimes or administrative violations. In cases of professional misconduct based solely upon a violation of subdivision five of section sixty-five hundred nine of this article, the professional conduct officer may prepare and serve the charges and may refer the matter directly to a regents review committee for its review and report of its findings, determination as to guilt, and recommendation as to the measure of discipline to be imposed. In such cases the notice of hearing shall state that the licensee may file a written answer, brief and affidavits; that the licensee may appear personally before the regents review committee, may be represented by counsel and may present evidence or sworn testimony on behalf of the licensee, and the notice may contain such other information as may be considered appropriate by the department. The department may also present evidence or sworn testimony at the hearing. A stenographic record of the hearing shall be made. Such evidence or sworn testimony offered at the meeting of the regents review committee shall be limited to evidence and testimony relating to the nature and severity of the penalty to be imposed upon the licensee. The presiding officer at the meeting of the regents review committee may, in his or her discretion, reasonably limit the number of witnesses whose testimony will be received and the length of time any witness will be permitted to testify. In lieu of referring the matter to the board of regents, the regents review committee may refer any such matter for further proceedings pursuant to paragraph b or c of this subdivision or subdivision three of this section. 3. Adversary proceedings. Contested disciplinary proceedings and other disciplinary proceedings not resolved pursuant to subdivision two of this section shall be tried before a hearing panel of the appropriate state board as provided in this subdivision. a. Notice of hearing. The department shall set the time and place of the hearing and shall prepare the notice of hearing. The notice of hearing shall state (1) the time and place of the hearing, (2) that the licensee may file a written answer to the charges prior to the hearing, (3) that the licensee may appear personally at the hearing and may be represented by counsel, (4) that the licensee shall have the right to produce witnesses and evidence in his behalf, to cross-examine witnesses and examine evidence produced against him, and to issue subpoenas in accordance with the provisions of the civil practice law and rules, (5) that a stenographic record of the hearing will be made, and (6) such other information as may be considered appropriate by the department. b. Hearing panel. The hearing shall be conducted by a panel of three or more members, at least two of whom shall be members of the applicable state board for the profession, and at least one of whom shall be a public representative who is a member of the applicable state board or of the state board for another profession licensed pursuant to this title. The executive secretary for the applicable state board shall appoint the panel and shall designate its chairperson. After the commencement of a hearing, no panel member shall be replaced. A determination by the administrative officer of a need to disqualify or remove any panel member will result in the disqualification or removal of the panel and cause a new panel to be appointed. In addition to said panel members, the department shall designate an administrative officer, admitted to practice as an attorney in the state of New York, who shall have the authority to rule on all motions, procedures and other legal objections and shall draft a report for the hearing panel which shall be subject to the approval of and signature by the panel chairperson on behalf of the panel. The administrative officer shall not be entitled to a vote. c. Conduct of hearing. The evidence in support of the charges shall be presented by an attorney for the department. The licensee shall have the rights required to be stated in the notice of hearing. The panel shall not be bound by the rules of evidence, but its determination of guilt shall be based on a preponderance of the evidence. A hearing which has been initiated shall not be discontinued because of the death or incapacity to serve of one member of the hearing panel. d. Results of hearing. The hearing panel shall render a written report which shall include (1) findings of fact, (2) a determination of guilty or not guilty on each charge, and (3) in the event of a determination of guilty, a recommendation of the penalty to be imposed. For the panel to make a determination of guilty, a minimum of two of the voting members of the panel must vote for such a determination. A copy of the report of the hearing panel shall be transmitted to the licensee. 4. Regents decision procedures. a. Regents review committee. The transcript and report of the hearing panel shall be reviewed at a meeting by a regents review committee appointed by the board of regents. The regents review committee shall consist of three members, at least one of whom shall be a regent. b. Regents review committee meetings. The review shall be based on the transcript and the report of the hearing panel. The licensee may appear at the meeting, and the regents review committee may require the licensee to appear. The licensee may be represented by counsel. The department shall notify the licensee at least seven days before the meeting (1) of the time and place of the meeting, (2) of his right to appear, (3) of his right to be represented by counsel, (4) whether or not he is required to appear, and (5) of such other information as may be considered appropriate. After the meeting, the regents review committee shall transmit a written report of its review to the board of regents. In cases referred directly to the regents review committee pursuant to paragraph d of subdivision two of this section, the review shall be based upon the charges, the documentary evidence submitted by the department, any answer, affidavits or brief the licensee may wish to submit, and any evidence or sworn testimony presented by the licensee or the department at the hearing, pursuant to Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 87 the procedures described by paragraph d of subdivision two of this section. c. Regents decision and order. The board of regents (1) shall consider the transcript, the report of the hearing panel, and the report of the regents review committee, (2) shall decide whether the licensee is guilty or not guilty on each charge, (3) shall decide what penalties, if any, to impose as prescribed in section sixty-five hundred eleven of this article, and (4) shall issue an order to carry out its decisions. Such decisions shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the board of regents. If the board of regents disagrees with the hearing panel's determination of not guilty, it shall remand the matter to the original panel for reconsideration or to a new panel for a new hearing. The panel's determination of not guilty on reconsideration or a new hearing shall be final. The order shall be served upon the licensee personally or by certified mail to the licensee's last known address and such service shall be effective as of the date of the personal service or five days after mailing by certified mail. The licensee shall deliver to the department the license and registration certificate which has been revoked, annulled, suspended, or surrendered within five days after the effective date of the service of the order. If the license or registration certificate is lost, misplaced or its whereabouts is otherwise unknown, the licensee shall submit an affidavit to that effect, and shall deliver such license or certificate to the department when located. 5. Court review procedures. The decisions of the board of regents may be reviewed pursuant to the proceedings under article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules. Such proceedings shall be returnable before the appellate division of the third judicial department, and such decisions shall not be stayed or enjoined except upon application to such appellate division after notice to the department and to the attorney general and upon a showing that the petitioner has a substantial likelihood of success. 6. The provisions of subdivisions one through four of this section shall not be applicable to proceedings in cases of professional misconduct involving the medical profession, except as provided in paragraph m of subdivision ten of section two hundred thirty of the public health law. 7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, persons who assist the department as consultants or expert witnesses in the investigation or prosecution of alleged professional misconduct, licensure matters, restoration proceedings, or criminal prosecutions for unauthorized practice, shall not be liable for damages in any civil action or proceeding as a result of such assistance, except upon proof of actual malice. The attorney general shall defend such persons in any such action or proceeding, in accordance with section seventeen of the public officers law. 8. The files of the department relating to the investigation of possible instances of professional misconduct, or the unlawful practice of any profession licensed by the board of regents, or the unlawful use of a professional title or the moral fitness of an applicant for a professional license or permit, shall be confidential and not subject to disclosure at the request of any person, except upon the order of a court in a pending action or proceeding. The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to documents introduced in evidence at a hearing held pursuant to this chapter and shall not prevent the department from sharing information concerning investigations with other duly authorized public agencies responsible for professional regulation or criminal prosecution. §6510-b. Temporary surrender of licenses during treatment for drug or alcohol abuse. 1. The license and registration of a licensee who may be temporarily incapacitated for the active practice of a profession licensed pursuant to title eight of this chapter, except professionals licensed pursuant to article one hundred thirty-one or article one hundred thirty-one-b thereof, and whose alleged incapacity is the result of a problem of drug or alcohol abuse which has not resulted in harm to a patient or client, may be voluntarily surrendered to the department, which may accept and hold such license during the period of such alleged incapacity or the department may accept the surrender of such license after agreement to conditions to be met prior to the restoration of the license. The department shall give written notification of such surrender to the licensing authorities of any other state or country in which the licensee is authorized to practice. In addition to the foregoing, the department shall also give written notification of such surrender, for professionals licensed pursuant to articles one hundred thirty-two, one hundred thirty-three, one hundred thirty-five, one hundred thirty-seven, one hundred thirty-nine and one hundred forty-one of this chapter to the commissioner of health or his designee, and where appropriate to each hospital at which the professional has privileges, is affiliated, or is employed. The licensee whose license is so surrendered shall notify all persons who request professional services that he or she has temporarily withdrawn from the practice of the profession. The department may provide for similar notification of patients or clients and of other interested parties, as appropriate under the circumstances of the professional practice and responsibilities of the licensee. The licensure status of such licensee shall be "inactive" and he or she shall not be authorized to practice the profession and shall refrain from practice in this state or in any other state or country. The voluntary surrender shall not be deemed to be an admission of disability or of professional misconduct, and shall not be used as evidence of a violation of subdivision three or four of section sixty-five hundred nine of this chapter, unless the licensee practices while the license is “inactive”; and any such practice shall constitute a violation of subdivision eight of said section. The surrender of a license under this subdivision shall not bar any disciplinary action except action based solely upon the provisions of subdivision three or four of section sixty-five hundred nine of this chapter, and only if no harm to a patient has resulted; and shall not bar any civil or criminal action or proceeding which might be brought without regard to such surrender. A surrendered license shall be restored upon a showing to the satisfaction of the department that the licensee is not incapacitated for the active practice of the profession, provided that the department may, by order of the commissioner, impose reasonable conditions on the licensee, if it determines that because of the nature and extent of the licensee’s former incapacity, such conditions are necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. Prompt written notification of such restoration shall be given to all licensing bodies which were notified of the temporary surrender of the license. 2. There shall be appointed within the department, by the board of regents, a committee on drug and alcohol abuse, which shall advise the board of regents on matters relating to practice by professional licensees Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 88 with drug or alcohol abuse problems, and which shall administer the provisions of this section. The board of regents shall determine the size, composition, and terms of office of such committee, a majority of the members of which shall be persons with expertise in problems of drug or alcohol abuse. The committee shall recommend to the board of regents such rules as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this section, including but not limited to procedures for the submission of applications for the surrender of a license and for the referral of cases for investigation or prosecution pursuant to section sixty-five hundred ten of this article if a licensee fails to comply with the conditions of an approved program of treatment. There shall be an executive secretary appointed by the board of regents to assist the committee. The executive secretary shall employ, or otherwise retain, the services of a registered professional nurse with appropriate qualifications in substance abuse and addiction to assist in the implementation of the program authorized by section six thousand five hundred ten-c of this article. Determinations by the committee relating to licensees shall be made by panels of at least three members of the committee designated by the executive secretary, who shall also designate a member of the state board for the licensee’s profession as the ex-officio non voting member of each panel. In the case of a determination relating to a licensed nurse, at least one panel member must be a registered professional nurse licensed by the state. 3. Application for the surrender of a license pursuant to this section shall be submitted to the committee, and shall identify a proposed treatment or rehabilitation program, and shall include a consent to the release of all information concerning the licensee’s treatment to the committee. All information concerning an application, other than the fact of the surrender of the license and the participation in the program and the successful completion or failure of or withdrawal from the program, shall be strictly confidential, and may not be released by the committee to any person or body without the consent of the licensee. The immunity from disciplinary action conferred by this section shall be conditioned upon the approval of the treatment or rehabilitation program by the committee and its successful completion by the applicant and the elimination of the incapacity to practice. Approval of a treatment or rehabilitation program by the committee shall not constitute a representation as to the probability of success of the program or any assumption of financial responsibility for its costs. 4. The immunity from disciplinary action conferred by this section may be revoked by the committee upon a finding that the licensee has failed to successfully complete the program or that the incapacity to practice has not been eliminated. Such revocation shall be made only after notice and an opportunity to be heard, but no adjudicatory hearing shall be required. The matter shall be referred for appropriate proceedings pursuant to section sixty-five hundred ten of this chapter. The license must be returned unless charges are served pursuant to section sixty-five hundred ten within thirty days after the revocation of the approval of the special treatment afforded by this section. 5. The commissioner is authorized to adopt regulations to carry out the purposes of this section, including but not limited to the notice of temporary inactive status to be required in different professions and practice situations and the measures required upon temporary withdrawal from practice. 6. No individual who serves as a member of a committee whose purpose is to confront and refer either to treatment or to the department licensees who are thought to be suffering from alcoholism or drug abuse shall be liable for damages to any person for any action taken by such individual provided such action was taken without malice and within the scope of such individual’s function as a member of such committee, and provided further that such committee has been established by and functions under the auspices of an association or society of professionals authorized to practice under this title. 7. In addition to the provisions of section two thousand eight hundred three-e of the public health law, any entity licensed pursuant to articles thirty-six, forty and forty-four of the public health law, and any mental hygiene facilities, and correctional, occupational, school and college health services shall provide a report to the office of professional discipline when there is a suspension, restriction, termination, curtailment or resignation of employment or privileges in any way related to a licensed nurse that is impaired when the impairment is alleged to have been caused by a drugrelated problem. Any person, facility, or corporation which makes a report pursuant to this section in good faith shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, for having made such a report except where the conduct constitutes negligence, gross negligence or intentional misconduct. For the purpose of any proceeding, civil or criminal, the good faith of any person, facility or corporation required to make a report shall be presumed. Such presumption may be rebutted by any competent evidence. §6510-c. Nurse peer assistance programs. 1. As used in this section: a. "Drugrelated problem" means a problem or problems that are related to the use, misuse or addiction to drugs or alcohol. b. "Participant" means an individual licensed pursuant to article one hundred thirty-nine of this title who has or may have a drug-related problem. c. "Approved nurse peer assistance program" means a program operated by the New York State Nurses Association or a statewide professional association of nurses which has experience in providing peer assistance services to nurses who have drugrelated problems which are designed to help a participant or a licensee’s employer and has been approved by the department in accordance with criteria established in regulations of the commissioner. d. "Peer assistance services" includes assessing the needs of a participant, including early identification of drug-related problems, and providing information, support, and advice as requested by a participant. 2. a. The department shall provide funds, including but not limited to a portion of the funds made available pursuant to the provisions of this section, for services provided by an approved nurse peer assistance program. Funds used to provide services shall not be used for the treatment of participants. Funded services shall include, but not be limited to: (1) providing peer assistance services for nurses with drug-related problems; (2) maintaining a toll-free telephone information line for anonymous nurses, their employers, and others to provide assistance in the identification of services and information for nurses dealing with drugrelated problems; (3) training monitors for the Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 89 professional assistance program; (4) arranging for mental health consultants to assess nurses for the professional assistance program, as needed; and (5) preparing written assessments of nurses who have been referred from the professional assistance program. b. An additional fee of fifteen dollars shall be paid at the time of application for licensure and first registration and every registration by those licensed pursuant to article one hundred thirty-nine of this title for the purpose of implementing this program. The funds made available under this provision shall be deposited in the office of professions special revenue account for its purposes in implementing this section. The department may use a portion of this amount for its administrative expenses incurred in implementing this program including, but not limited to, employment of personnel, the costs of approving and contracting with a peer assistance program as required by this section and outreach activities to promote this program. 3. No approved nurse peer assistance program or individual who serves in an approved nurse peer assistance program shall be liable in damages to any person for any action taken or not taken or recommendations made unless, based on the facts disclosed by a participant, the conduct of the program or person with respect to the person asserting liability constituted negligence, gross negligence, or intentional misconduct. 4. All information concerning a participant gathered by the approved nurse peer assistance program shall be strictly confidential and may not be released to any person or body without the consent of the participant, except upon the order of a court in a pending action or proceeding. Aggregate data may be released to the committee on drug and alcohol abuse. §6510-d. Voluntary non-disciplinary surrender of a license. A professional who is licensed pursuant to article one hundred thirty-nine of this title may voluntarily surrender a license to the committee on drug and alcohol abuse when such licensee requests to be monitored and/or receive peer support services in relation to the use, misuse or addiction to drugs. The committee shall accept such voluntary non-disciplinary surrender of a license and provide for expedited reinstatement of the license if the licensee meets criteria set by the committee. Such criteria will include, but not be limited to, confidence that the licensee’s use of drugs and/or alcohol has not resulted in harm to a patient or client and the licensee is not incapacitated, unfit for practice or a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the public. Such voluntary surrender, if accepted by the committee, shall result in an immediate reinstatement of the license and shall provide immunity from a violation of subdivision three or four of section six thousand five hundred nine of this article and cannot be deemed an admission or used as evidence in professional misconduct. Acceptance by the committee shall not require a report to the department of health or to any employer or licensing authority of another jurisdiction, nor require any disclosure to patients or to the public that such license has been temporarily surrendered, except if it is subsequently determined by the department that a participant being monitored by the department is found to have used drugs and/or alcohol which has resulted in harm to a patient or client. §6511. Penalties misconduct. for professional licensee successfully completes a course of retraining in the area to which the suspension applies; (c) wholly, until the licensee successfully completes a course of therapy or treatment prescribed by the regents; (3) revocation of license, (4) annulment of license or registration, (5) limitation on registration or issuance of any further license, (6) a fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars, upon each specification of charges of which the respondent is determined to be guilty, (7) a requirement that a licensee pursue a course of education or training, and (8) a requirement that a licensee perform up to one hundred hours of public service, in a manner and at a time and place as directed by the board. The board of regents may stay such penalties in whole or in part, may place the licensee on probation and may restore a license which has been revoked, provided, in the case of licensees subject to section two hundred thirty of the public health law, notice that the board is considering such restoration is given to the office of professional medical conduct at least thirty days before the date on which such restoration shall be considered. Upon the recommendation of the office of professional medical conduct, the board of regents may deny such restoration. Any fine imposed pursuant to this section or pursuant to subdivision two of section sixtyfive hundred ten of this article may be sued for and recovered in the name of the people of the state of New York in an action brought by the attorney general. In such action the findings and determination of the board of regents or of the violations committee shall be admissible evidence and shall be conclusive proof of the violation and the penalty assessed. The penalties which may be imposed by the board of regents on a present or former licensee found guilty of professional misconduct (under the definitions and proceedings prescribed in sections sixty-five hundred nine and sixty-five hundred ten of this article) are: (1) censure and reprimand, (2) suspension of license, (a) wholly, for a fixed period of time; (b) partially, until the Subarticle 4 Unauthorized Acts §6512. Unauthorized practice a crime. 1. Anyone not authorized to practice under this title who practices or offers to practice or holds himself out as being able to practice in any profession in which a license is a prerequisite to the practice of the acts, or who practices any profession as an exempt person during the time when his professional license is suspended, revoked or annulled, or who aids or abets an unlicensed person to practice a profession, Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 90 or who fraudulently sells, files, furnishes, obtains, or who attempts fraudulently to sell, file, furnish or obtain any diploma, license, record or permit purporting to authorize the practice of a profession, shall be guilty of a class E felony. 2. Anyone who knowingly aids or abets three or more unlicensed persons to practice a profession or employs or holds such unlicensed persons out as being able to practice in any profession in which a license is a prerequisite to the practice of the acts, or who knowingly aids or abets three or more persons to practice any profession as exempt persons during the time when the professional licenses of such persons are suspended, revoked or annulled, shall be guilty of a class E felony. §6513. Unauthorized use of a professional title a crime. 1. Anyone not authorized to use a professional title regulated by this title, and who uses such professional title, shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. 2. Anyone who knowingly aids or abets three or more persons not authorized to use a professional title regulated by this title, to use such professional title, or knowingly employs three or more persons not authorized to use a professional title regulated by this title, who use such professional title in the course of such employment, shall be guilty of a class E felony. §6514. Criminal proceedings. 1. All alleged violations of sections sixty-five hundred twelve or sixty-five hundred thirteen of this article shall be reported to the department which shall cause an investigation to be instituted. All alleged violations of section sixty-five hundred thirty-one of the education law shall be reported to the department of health which shall cause an investigation to be instituted. If the investigation substantiates that violations exist, such violations shall be reported to the attorney general with a request for prosecution. 2. The attorney general shall prosecute such alleged offenses in the name of the state, provided, however, in the event of alleged violations of article one hundred fifty-five of this title, a district attorney may prosecute such alleged offenses in the name of the state provided, however, that any district attorney may prosecute such offenses where they are incidental to a criminal prosecution instituted by him under other statutes. 3. All criminal courts having jurisdiction over misdemeanors are hereby empowered to hear, try and determine alleged violations under this title, which constitute misdemeanors, without indictment and to impose applicable punishment of fines or imprisonments or both. It shall be necessary to prove in any prosecution under this title only a single prohibited act or a single holding out without proving a general course of conduct. 4. A proceeding before a committee on professional conduct shall not be deemed to be a criminal proceeding within the meaning of this section. §6515. Restraint of unlawful acts. Where a violation of this title is alleged to have occurred, the attorney general or the department, in the event of alleged violations of article one hundred fifty-five of this title occurring in cities having a population of one million or more, the corporation counsel may apply to the supreme court within the judicial district in which such violation is alleged to have occurred for an order enjoining or restraining commission or continuance of the unlawful acts complained of. The court shall have jurisdiction of the proceedings and shall have power to grant such temporary relief or restraining order as it deems just and proper. In any such proceeding it shall be unnecessary to allege or prove that an adequate remedy at law does not exist or that irreparable damage would result if such order were not granted. The remedy provided in this section shall be in addition to any other remedy provided by law or to the proceedings commenced against a licensee under this title. §6516. Civil enforcement proceedings and civil penalties. 1. Issuance of cease and desist order. Whenever the department has reasonable cause to believe that any person has violated any provision of section sixty-five hundred twelve or sixty-five hundred thirteen of this article, the department may issue and serve upon such person a notice to cease and desist from such violation. Such cease and desist order shall be served personally by the department. If personal service can not be made after due diligence and such fact is certified under oath, a copy of the order shall be made by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the person`s last known address by the department. 2. Contents of cease and desist order. The cease and desist order shall be in writing and shall describe with particularity the nature of the violation, including a reference of the specific provision or provisions of law alleged to have been violated and an order to the respondent to cease any unlawful activity. The cease and desist order shall advise the respondent (a) of the right to contest the order by requesting a hearing within thirty days of the service of the cease and desist order before a hearing officer designated by the department (b) of the right to request a stay of the cease and desist order at the time a hearing is requested and (c) shall set forth the respondent`s rights at such a hearing pursuant to subdivision five of this section. 3. Civil penalties. Civil penalties up to five thousand dollars may be imposed for each violation and the respondent may be ordered to make restitution to any person who has an interest in any money or property, either real or personal, acquired by the respondent as a result of a violation. Whenever the department concludes that civil penalties and/or restitution may be warranted because of the egregiousness of the unlawful activity, it may serve, along with the cease and desist order, a notice of a hearing on the allegations of unlawful activity and the department`s intention to order the respondent to make restitution and/or impose a civil penalty. The notice should specify the civil penalty sought for each violation. 4. Request for hearing. If the respondent to a cease and desist order contests the cease and desist order, the respondent shall request a hearing conducted by the department within thirty days of the receipt of the cease and desist order. Such a hearing shall be scheduled, and the requesting party notified of the date, within fifteen days of the receipt of the request for a hearing. If the respondent requests a stay of the cease and desist order, the hearing officer shall determine whether the cease and desist order should be stayed in whole or in part within five working days of the request for a stay. The respondent may file a written answer to the cease and desist order prior to the hearing. A stenographic record of the hearing shall be made. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 91 5. Conduct of hearing. The evidence in support of the cease and desist order shall be presented by an attorney for the department. The respondent may appear personally and may be represented by counsel at the hearing, may produce witnesses and evidence in his or her behalf at the hearing, may cross-examine witnesses and examine evidence produced against him or her at the hearing, and may issue subpoenas in accordance with section three hundred four of the state administrative procedure act. The hearing officer shall not be bound by the rules of evidence, but his or her determination that a violation of section sixty-five hundred twelve or sixty-five hundred thirteen of this article has occurred shall be based on a preponderance of the evidence. A hearing which has been initiated shall not be discontinued because of the death or incapacity of the hearing officer. In the event of a hearing officer`s death or incapacity to serve, a new hearing officer shall be designated by the department to continue the hearing. The new hearing officer shall affirm in writing that he or she has read and considered evidence and transcripts of the prior proceedings. 6. Results of hearing. The hearing officer designated by the department shall render a written report which shall include (a) findings of fact, (b) a determination on each violation alleged in the cease and desist order, (c) a determination as to whether to accept, reject, or modify any of the terms of the cease and desist order in whole or in part, and (d) the civil penalty imposed, if any. A copy of the hearing officer`s written report shall be served upon the respondent with a notice setting forth the respondent`s rights to an administrative appeal within ten days of the conclusion of the hearing. 7. Appeals. The decision of the hearing officer shall be final, except that it may be appealed to a regents review committee within twenty days of the receipt of the hearing officer`s report. The initiation of an appeal shall not in and of itself affect the validity or terms of the cease and desist order. The regents review committee shall consist of three members, at least one of whom shall be a regent. The review shall be based on the transcript and the report of the hearing officer. The respondent may appear at the meeting, and the regents review committee may require the respondent to appear. The respondent may be represented by counsel. The department shall notify the respondent at least ten days before the meeting (a) of the time and place of the meeting, (b) of the right to appear, (c) of the right to be represented by counsel, (d) whether or not the respondent is required to appear, and (e) of such other information as may be considered appropriate. After the meeting, the regents review committee shall transmit a written report of its review to the board of regents. The board of regents (i) shall consider the transcript, the report of the hearing officer, and the report of the regents review committee, (ii) shall decide whether the respondent has violated each charge in the cease and desist order, (iii) shall decide what penalties, if any, to impose as prescribed in this section, and (iv) shall issue an order to carry out its decisions. Such decisions shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the board of regents. The order shall be served upon the respondent personally or by certified mail to the respondent`s last known address and such service shall be effective as of the date of the personal service or five days after mailing by certified mail. The decisions of the board of regents under this section may be reviewed in a proceeding pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules brought in the supreme court, Albany county. Such decisions shall not be stayed or enjoined except upon application to such supreme court pursuant to article sixty-three of the civil practice law and rules with notice to the department and to the attorney general. 8. General enforcement of cease and desist order. In any case where the cease and desist order is confirmed by the board of regents or where the respondent does not request an administrative hearing within the allotted time or does not appeal the decision of the hearing officer within the allotted time, an action or proceeding may be filed in the name of the state of New York seeking a restraining order, injunction, appropriate writ, or judgment against any person who violates the terms of the cease and desist order. 9. Special enforcement of civil monetary penalties. Provided that no appeal is pending on the imposition of such civil penalty, in the event such civil penalty imposed by the department remains unpaid, in whole or in part, more than forty-five days after written demand for payment has been sent by first class mail to the address of the respondent, a notice of impending default judgment shall be sent by first class mail to the respondent. The notice of impending default judgment shall advise the respondent: (a) that a civil penalty was imposed on the respondent; (b) the date the penalty was imposed; (c) the amount of the civil penalty; (d) the amount of the civil penalty that remains unpaid as of the date of the notice; (e) the violations for which the civil penalty was imposed; and (f) that a judgment by default will be entered in the supreme court, Albany county unless the department receives full payment of all civil penalties due within twenty days of the date of the notice of impending default judgment. If full payment shall not have been received by the department within thirty days of mailing of the notice of impending default judgment, the department shall proceed to enter with such court a statement of the default judgment containing the amount of the penalty or penalties remaining due and unpaid, along with proof of mailing of the notice of impending default judgment. The filing of such judgment shall have the full force and effect of a default judgment duly docketed with such court pursuant to the civil practice law and rules and shall in all respects be governed by that chapter and may be enforced in the same manner and with the same effect as that provided by law in respect to execution issued against property upon judgments of a court of record. A judgment entered pursuant to this subdivision shall remain in full force and effect for eight years notwithstanding any other provision of law. REGENTS RULES Part 17 Disciplinary Proceedings in the Professions Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 92 §17.1 Complaints or other information. All complaints or other information relating to licensees authorized to practice a profession under title VIII of the Education Law shall be referred to the director of the Office of Professional Discipline. §17.2 Investigation. The director of the Office of Professional Discipline or that officer's designee shall, in matters involving possible professional misconduct, initiate an investigation of each such complaint or other information. §17.3 Prosecution or settlement of disciplinary proceedings. Prosecution or settlement of disciplinary proceedings shall be conducted as provided in title VIII of the Education Law, and as provided in this Part. §17.4 Reports. The director of the Office of Professional Discipline or that officer's designee shall submit a report by April first of each year on the status of cases investigated during the previous year, as well as on the disposition of any criminal or civil matters processed through the office, to the chairman of the State Board for each of the professions supervised by the Board of Regents. §17.5 Consent orders. Disciplinary proceedings conducted pursuant to the provisions of title VIII of the Education Law may be disposed of in accordance with the following procedure: (a) A licensee who is under investigation, or against whom charges have been voted, who admits guilt to at least one of the acts of misconduct alleged or charged, in full satisfaction of all allegations or charges, or who does not contest the allegations or charges or who cannot successfully defend against at least one of the acts of misconduct alleged or charged, shall notify the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or the director's designee. (b) If the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or the director's designee, a designated member of the State Board for the applicable profession, and the licensee agree to a statement by the licensee admitting guilt to one or more of the allegations or charges or setting forth a decision not to contest the allegations or charges or stating that the licensee cannot successfully defend against such allegations or charges and agreeing to a proposed penalty, and if a designated member of the Board of Regents thereafter agrees to such statement and proposed penalty, and if the Committee on the Professions thereafter agrees to such statement and proposed penalty, a written application, signed by all the above except the Committee on the Professions, shall be submitted by the licensee to the Board of Regents based upon the statement and proposed penalty consenting to the issuance of an order of the Commissioner of Education or his or her designee effectuating such penalty. The provisions of this section shall apply to licensees subject to disciplinary proceedings conducted pursuant to title VIII of the Education Law. They shall be applicable to individuals licensed or registered pursuant to articles 131 or 131-B of title VIII of the Education Law for those cases in which charges of professional misconduct were served on or before July 26, 1991, the effective date of Chapter 606 of the Laws of 1991. They shall also be applicable to licensees and registrants subject to article 137 of the Education Law. With respect to such licensees subject to articles 131 or 131B of title VIII of the Education Law, the agreement of the director of the Office of Professional Medical Conduct or that officer's designee, and of the Commissioner of Health or his or her designee, to the statement and proposed penalty and their signatures on the application shall be required in lieu of the agreement and signature of the director of the Office of Professional Discipline. With respect to such licensees subject to the provisions of articles 131 or 131-B of title VIII of the Education Law, the term State Board as used in this section means the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct. With respect to licensees and registrants subject to article 137 of the Education Law, the agreement of the executive secretary of the State Board for Pharmacy to the statement and proposed penalty and his or her signature on the application shall also be required. (c) The application shall be in such form and shall contain such substance as is acceptable to the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or the director’s designee. (d) In the event an application is not granted by the Board of Regents, nothing contained therein shall be binding upon the licensee or construed to be an admission of any act of misconduct alleged or charged, and such application shall not be used against the licensee in any way. Any such application shall be kept in strict confidence during the pendency of the disciplinary proceeding. In addition, such denial by the Board of Regents shall be without prejudice to the continuance of the disciplinary proceeding and the final determination by the Board of Regents pursuant to the provisions of the Education Law. (e) In the event the Board of Regents grants the application, the commissioner or his or her designee shall issue an order in accordance therewith. §17.6 Surrender of license. Disciplinary proceedings conducted pursuant to the provisions of title VIII of the Education Law may be disposed of in accordance with the following procedure: (a) A licensee who is under investigation or against whom charges have been voted, who wishes to surrender his or her license to practice any of the professions enumerated in title VIII, shall notify the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or that officer's designee. (b) An application to surrender a license shall be based upon a statement that the licensee admits guilt to at least one of the acts of misconduct alleged or charged, in full satisfaction of all allegations or charges, or does not contest the allegations or charges, or cannot successfully defend against at least one of the acts of misconduct alleged or charged. If the director or the director’s designee, a designated member of the State Board for the applicable profession, and the licensee agree to such statement, and if a designated member of the Board of Regents thereafter agrees to such statement, and if the Committee on the Professions thereafter agrees to such statement, a written application, signed by the licensee, shall be submitted to the Board of Regents. The application shall be in such form and shall contain such substance as is acceptable to the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or the director’s designee. The provisions of this section shall apply to licensees subject to disciplinary proceedings conducted pursuant Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 93 to title VIII of the Education Law. They shall be applicable to individuals licensed or registered pursuant to articles 131 or 131-B of title VIII of the Education Law for those cases in which charges of professional misconduct were served on or before July 26, 1991, the effective date of Chapter 606 of the Laws of 1991. They shall also be applicable to licensees and registrants subject to article 137 of the Education Law. With respect to such licensees subject to articles 131 or 131-B of title VIII of the Education Law, the agreement of the director of the Office of Professional Medical Conduct or that officer’s designee and the Commissioner of Health or his or her designee to the statement, and their signature on the application, shall be required in lieu of the agreement and signature of the director of the Office of Professional Discipline. With respect to such licensees subject to articles 131 or 131B of title VIII of the Education Law, the term State Board as used in this section means the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct. With respect to licensees and registrants subject to article 137 of the Education Law, the agreement of the executive secretary of the State Board of Pharmacy to the statement and his or her signature on the application shall also be required. (c) In the event the application is not granted by the Board of Regents, nothing contained therein shall be binding upon the licensee or construed to be an admission of any act of misconduct alleged or charged, and such application shall not be used against the licensee in any way. The application shall be kept in strict confidence during the pendency of the disciplinary proceeding. In addition, any such denial by the Board of Regents shall be made without prejudice to the continuance of any disciplinary proceeding and the final determination by the Board of Regents pursuant to the provisions of the Education Law. (d) In the event the Board of Regents grants the application, the commissioner or his or her designee shall issue an order in accordance therewith. §17.7 Violation of probation. (a) Upon the receipt of information indicating that the respondent may be in violation of any of the terms or conditions of respondent's probation, the department shall conduct an investigation. (b) The director of the Office of Professional Discipline shall review the results of the investigation and if the director determines that a violation of probation proceeding is warranted, the director shall give notice to the respondent, by letter, of the facts forming the basis of the alleged violation of respondent's probation. The respondent, in said letter, shall be requested to indicate whether there is any dispute as to the facts, and shall be informed that if respondent disputes any of the facts the respondent shall be entitled to a hearing thereon. (c) If the respondent does not dispute the facts forming the basis of the alleged violation of probation, the matter shall be submitted to the Regents Review Committee for its review and recommendations(s) [sic] as to whether, based upon the undisputed facts, there has been a violation of the terms or conditions of respondent's probation and, if so, as to the measure of discipline to be imposed upon the respondent. (d) If the respondent disputes any of the facts forming the basis of the alleged violation of probation, the respondent shall be afforded a hearing before a hearing officer appointed by the commissioner to hear and make findings of fact, conclusions of law and recommendation(s). The department shall give the respondent at least 10 days' notice of the hearing, 15 if by mail. The evidence in support of the application shall be presented by counsel on behalf of the department and the respondent shall also have the right to be represented by counsel. The department and the respondent have the right to produce witnesses and other evidence, to cross-examine witnesses, and to examine any other evidence produced at the hearing. A stenographic record of the hearing will be made, and the hearing officer shall not be bound by the rules of evidence, but the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the hearing officer shall be based upon substantial evidence. (e) The report of the hearing officer shall be reviewed by the Regents Review Committee. (f) The Regents Review Committee shall notify the respondent, at least seven days before its meeting, of the time and place of such meeting, and shall also notify the respondent of the opportunity to appear in person and to be represented by counsel at such meeting. (g) The Regents Review Committee shall transmit the report of the hearing officer and a written report of its review to the Board of Regents. The final determination shall be made by the Board of Regents, and the commissioner or his or her designee shall issue an order implementing such determination. (h) The measure of discipline to be imposed for any violation of probation may be to continue the respondent on probation for a period in addition to the period of probation imposed in the original order, or to terminate the probation, vacate the stay of execution, and impose any measure of discipline authorized by section 6511 of the Education Law. A violation of probation shall constitute unprofessional conduct, and may constitute the basis for proceedings under either the provisions of section 6510 of the Education Law or of this Part. §17.8 Hearing panel; administrative officers. Findings of fact, recommendations as to penalties to be imposed, and any other actions taken by a hearing panel in disciplinary proceedings, except as hereinafter set forth, shall be made by majority vote. Any determination of guilt shall require a minimum of a four fifths vote of the hearing panel. An administrative officer, admitted to practice as an attorney in the State of New York, shall rule on all motions, procedures and other legal objections, and draft a report which shall reflect the determination and recommendation of the panel and be subject to the approval of and signature by the panel chairperson on behalf of the panel. The administrative officer shall not be entitled to a vote. §17.9 Summary suspensions. (a) If the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or that officer's designee believes that the public health, safety or welfare imperatively requires emergency action against a professional license, certificate, registration, permit or other authorization of the licensee to practice under title VIII of the Education Law, the director or the director’s designee may make an application, on behalf of the department, to the Board of Regents for the summary suspension of said authorization pending the prompt institution prosecution and completion of formal disciplinary proceedings as provided under section 6510 of the Education Law. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 94 (b) Summary suspension proceedings shall be commenced by the service on the licensee of a notice of hearing and a verified petition. The notice of hearing shall state the time and place of oral argument on the application for summary suspension and the regent designated by the chancellor to hear the matter, and shall include a copy of this rule. The notice of hearing and petition shall be personally served upon the licensee no later than five days prior to the date set for oral argument. If personal service cannot be made after due diligence, the notice of hearing and petition may be served by certified mail, to the licensee’s last known address, not less than eight days prior to the date set for oral argument. The petition shall set forth the basis for the application and shall include sworn statements upon personal knowledge and/or exhibits demonstrating probable cause to believe that respondent has committed professional misconduct and that the public health, safety or welfare imperatively requires emergency action to summarily suspend respondent’s license. A verified answer and any sworn statements and supporting exhibits may be served by respondent upon the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or the director’s designee no later than two days prior to the date set for oral argument. The director of the Office of Professional Discipline or the director’s designee may serve a verified reply, together with any sworn statement and supporting exhibits, to the answer no later than the day prior to the date of oral argument. The answer and/or reply may be served by certified mail by mailing to the addressee no later than three and two days, respectively, prior to the date set for oral argument. The petition, answer and reply, together with any sworn statement and supporting exhibits, shall be transmitted at the time of service of each paper to the regent designated to hear the case. Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays shall be excluded in calculating the periods of time set forth in this subdivision. (c) At the oral argument, the Office of Professional Discipline and respondent and/or his or her attorney shall have the right to be heard, but no testimony shall be taken and no transcript of oral arguments shall be required. No further papers shall be submitted at the oral argument except by permission of the regent designated to conduct the proceeding. (d) The regent designated by the chancellor to conduct the proceeding shall submit a written report of his or her conclusions and recommendation(s) to the Board of Regents, which shall determine whether to grant or deny the application for summary suspension. A determination by the Board of Regents granting the application must be based upon a finding that the public health, safety or welfare imperatively requires emergency action. (e) Any determination of the Board of Regents shall be without prejudice to the department or licensee in any subsequent formal disciplinary proceeding. REGENTS RULES Part 24 Committee on the Professions §24.1 Membership. The Committee on the Professions shall consist of three department officers designated by the Board of Regents pursuant to section 6506(10) of the Education Law. §24.2 Purpose. registered by the department or nationally accredited in lieu of a maximum of six semester hours of preprofessional education. (2) The Committee on the Professions may accept postsecondary study satisfactory to the department and performed after completion of professional study requirements in lieu of a maximum of 30 semester hours of required preprofessional study. (b) Professional education. As the equivalent of a professional program registered by the department, the Committee on the Professions may accept a professional program which is: (1) offered by an institution accredited by an accrediting organization acceptable to the department or recognized by appropriate civil authorities of the country in which the school is located as an acceptable program of preparation for professional practice; (2) designed and conducted by the degree-granting institution to prepare graduates for the professional practice of the profession in the State or country in which the institution is located; and (3) demonstrated to be the substantial equivalent in scope, content and resources to a program meeting the requirements established by Part 52 of this Title for the registration of a professional licensure qualifying program in the State. (c) Waiver of citizenship requirement for an alien physician. The Committee on the Professions shall be authorized to grant a one-time three-year waiver of the citizenship requirement for medical licensure to an alien physician, provided that such applicant: (1) applies for medical licensure; (2) meets all requirements for a medical license except citizenship; (3) agrees to maintain lawful immigration status; and (4) agrees to practice in an area The Committee on the Professions shall review and make recommendations or determinations in licensing and disciplinary matters as provided in this Part or pursuant to referrals from the Board of Regents. §24.3 Standards. The Committee on the Professions shall review and determine questions of the preprofessional or professional education of applicants for licensure or other authorizations to practice in accordance with the following standards. (a) Preprofessional education. (1) The Committee on the Professions may accept graduation from a professional program which is either Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 95 which has been designated by the State Education Department as medically underserved. §24.4 Review of appeals - education or experience. The Committee on the Professions may review and determine appeals for licensing determinations of the department staff relating to education or experience requirements if the chairman of the committee determines that the appeal involves a substantial or novel question which should be reviewed by the committee. §24.5 Review of appeals - license surrender and restoration. The Committee on the Professions shall review and determine appeals pursuant to section 18.7 of this Title relating to the voluntary surrender and restoration of licenses. §24.6 Review of questions of moral character. The Committee on the Professions shall review and determine questions of moral character in accordance with the provisions of Part 28 of this Title. §24.7 Review in other cases. (a) The Committee on the Professions shall review and submit its recommendation to the Board of Regents for final determinations in the following cases: (1) applications pursuant to Education Law, section 6506(5), for the waiver of an education, experience or examination requirement on the ground that the requirement has been substantially met; and (2) petitions for restoration of a professional license which has been revoked or surrendered pursuant to sections 6510 or 6510-a of the Education Law or title II-A of article 2 of the Public Health Law. For individuals served prior to June 20, 1997 with an order of revocation, acceptance of surrender, or denial of an application for restoration or reinstatement by vote of the Board of Regents, at least one year shall have elapsed from the date of such service for the acceptance by the department of a petition to the Board of Regents for restoration of a license or certificate, except that a period of time during which the license was suspended during the pendency of the discipline proceeding may reduce the one-year waiting period. For individuals served on or after June 20, 1997 with an order of revocation, acceptance of surrender, or denial of an application for restoration or reinstatement by vote of the Board of Regents, at least three years shall have elapsed from the date of such service for the acceptance by the department of a petition to the Board of Regents for restoration of a license or certificate, except that a period of time during which the license was suspended during the pendency of the discipline proceeding may reduce the three-year waiting period. This section shall not apply to restoration of licenses which have been temporarily surrendered pursuant to Education Law, section 6520-b, or Public Health Law, section 230(13). (i) Materials submitted in response to the Committee on the Professions' recommendation to the Board of Regents shall be filed no later than 15 days following the postmarked date of the written notification of the decision or recommendation of the Committee on the Professions. (ii) If an applicant has failed to remain current with developments in the profession, and a substantial question is presented as to the applicant's current fitness to enter in to the active practice of the profession, the Board of Regents may require that the applicant take and obtain satisfactory grades on a proficiency examination satisfactory to the department prior to the issuance of a license or limited permit. (iii) An applicant shall pay to the department a fee of $750 at the time he or she submits an application for the restoration of a professional license, which has been revoked or surrendered as prescribed in this paragraph. (b) The Committee on the Professions shall review and determine whether to agree to the following: (1) a statement upon which an application for a consent order is based and proposed penalty, pursuant to section 17.5 of this Title; and (2) a statement upon which an application to surrender a license is based, pursuant to section 17.6 of this Title. §24.8 Unacceptable practice protocols. The Committee on the Professions shall review and determine appeals from findings of unacceptable practice protocols involving nurse practitioners and collaborating physicians. §24.9 Reconsideration. An application for reconsideration of a determination made by the Committee on the Professions or by the Board of Regents following a Committee on the Professions recommendation may be accepted upon a showing that the original action was based on an error of law, or that there is new and material evidence which was not previously available, or that circumstances have changed subsequent to the original determination. REGENTS RULES Part 28 Determination of Good Moral Character in the Professions §28.1 Determination of good moral character. The determination of whether an applicant for authorization to practice a profession, under title VIII of the Education Law, is of good moral character shall be made in accordance with the procedures specified in this Part. Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 96 §28.2 Information. All information indicating that an applicant has been convicted of a crime, or has committed an act which raises a reasonable question as to the applicant's moral character, shall be referred to the director of the Office of Professional Discipline or his or her designee. §28.5 Hearing. The applicant shall be given 15 days' notice, by mail, of the time and place of the hearing and a statement of the matters asserted which raised the question of the applicant's moral character. The applicant may be represented at the hearing by an attorney, may cross-examine witnesses, may produce witnesses, and may present evidence in support of the applicant's good moral character. The hearing, at which a verbatim record shall be taken, shall take place before a panel consisting of three or more members of the appropriate professional State Board, and before an administrative officer admitted to practice as an attorney in the State of New York, designated by the department. Such administrative officer shall have authority to rule on all motions, procedures and other legal objections, but shall not be entitled to vote in the determination of the panel. The determination of the panel shall be made by a majority vote of the panel and shall be rendered in a written report which shall be drafted by the administrative officer, shall reflect the determination and recommendations of the panel, and shall be subject to the approval of and signature by the panel chairperson on behalf of the panel. Copies of the report shall be forwarded to the director of the Division of Professional Licensing Services and to the applicant. §28.6 Appeal. The applicant or the director of the Office or Professional Discipline may appeal the determination of the panel concerning the licensure requirement of good moral character by filing a written notice of appeal therefrom with the Committee on the Professions within 30 days after service of the report of the panel upon the party taking the appeal. In the event no appeal is taken from the determination of the panel, the §28.3 Investigation. The director of the Office of Professional Discipline, or his or her designee, shall arrange for a full and complete investigation of the circumstances surrounding such conviction or act. If it is determined that a reasonable question exists as to the applicant’s moral character, then the director, or his or her designee, shall submit the results of the investigation, including any letters of reference from peers or others which may have been submitted by the applicant, to a panel of the appropriate professional State Board for its review. The panel shall consist of three or more members of the State Board. §28.4 Review. Upon such review, the panel, by majority vote, may conclude in favor of the applicant to the effect that the moral character of the applicant is adequate for licensure, thereby fulfilling that licensure requirement, and the applicant and the director of the Division of Professional Licensing Services shall be notified of such conclusion by the Office of Professional Discipline. If, upon such review, the panel concludes, by a majority vote, that a substantial question exists as to the moral character of the applicant, the applicant shall be notified thereof. Upon the written request of the applicant, within 30 days after receipt of such notice, the department shall schedule a hearing on such question. determination of the panel shall be final. In the event either party appeals from the determination of the panel, the appellant may submit a brief to the Committee on the Professions and the opposing party within 30 days after filing the notice of appeal. An answering brief may be filed by the opposing party with the Committee on the Professions within 20 days after the receipt by the opposing party of the brief submitted by the appellant. The Committee on the Professions may affirm, reverse or modify the determination of the panel and/or make such other determination as it may deem just and proper under the circumstances. The determination of the Committee on the Professions shall be final and copies thereof shall be forwarded to the applicant and to the director of the Office of Professional Discipline. §28.7 Reapplication. Whether or not the applicant appeals from the determination of the panel, the applicant may reapply for licensure to the director of the Division of Professional Licensing Services after the expiration of 18 months from the date of service of the report of the panel. §28.8 Proficiency examination. If the Committee on the Professions determines that the applicant otherwise meets the moral character requirements, but has failed to remain current with developments in the profession, and a substantial question is presented as to the applicant’s current fitness to enter into the active practice of the profession, the Committee on the Professions may require that the applicant take and obtain satisfactory grades on a proficiency examination satisfactory to the department prior to the issuance of a license or limited permit. REGENTS RULES Part 29 Unprofessional Conduct §29.1 General provisions. (a) Unprofessional conduct shall be the conduct prohibited by this section. The provisions of these rules applicable to a particular profession may define additional acts or omissions as unprofessional conduct and may establish exceptions to these general prohibitions. (b) Unprofessional conduct in the practice of any profession licensed, certified or registered pursuant to title VIII of the Education Law, except for cases involving those professions licensed, certified or registered pursuant to the provisions of Article 131 or 131-B of such law in which a statement of charges of professional Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 97 misconduct was not served on or before July 26, 1991, the effective date of chapter 606 of the Laws of 1991, shall include: (1) willful or grossly negligent failure to comply with substantial provisions of Federal, State or local laws, rules or regulations governing the practice of the profession; (2) exercising undue influence on the patient or client, including the promotion of the sale of services, goods, appliances or drugs in such manner as to exploit the patient or client for the financial gain of the practitioner or of a third party; (3) directly or indirectly offering, giving, soliciting, or receiving or agreeing to receive, any fee or other consideration to or from a third party for the referral of a patient or client or in connection with the performance of professional services; (4) permitting any person to share in the fees for professional services, other than: a partner, employee, associate in a professional firm or corporation, professional subcontractor or consultant authorized to practice the same profession, or a legally authorized trainee practicing under the supervision of a licensed practitioner. This prohibition shall include any arrangement or agreement whereby the amount received in payment for furnishing space, facilities, equipment or personnel services used by a professional licensee constitutes a percentage of, or is otherwise dependent upon, the income or receipts of the licensee from such practice, except as otherwise provided by law with respect to a facility licensed pursuant to article 28 of the Public Health Law or article 13 of the Mental Hygiene Law; (5) conduct in the practice of a profession which evidences moral unfitness to practice the profession; (6) willfully making or filing a false report, or failing to file a report required by law or by the Education Department, or willfully impeding or obstructing such filing, or inducing another person to do so; (7) failing to make available to a patient or client, upon request, copies of documents in the possession or under the control of the licensee which have been prepared for and paid for by the patient or client; (8) revealing of personally identifiable facts, data or information obtained in a professional capacity without the prior consent of the patient or client, except as authorized or required by law; (9) practicing or offering to practice beyond the scope permitted by law, or accepting and performing professional responsibilities which the licensee knows or has reason to know that he or she is not competent to perform, or performing without adequate supervision professional services which the licensee is authorized to perform only under the supervision of a licensed professional, except in an emergency situation where a person's life or health is in danger; (10) delegating professional responsibilities to a person when the licensee delegating such responsibilities knows or has reason to know that such person is not qualified, by training, by experience or by licensure, to perform them; (11) performing professional services which have not been duly authorized by the patient or client or his or her legal representative; (12) advertising or soliciting for patronage that is not in the public interest: (i) Advertising or soliciting not in the public interest shall include, but not be limited to, advertising or soliciting that: (a) is false, fraudulent, deceptive or misleading; (b) guarantees any service; (c) makes any claim relating to professional services or products or the cost or price therefor which cannot be substantiated by the licensee, who shall have the burden of proof; (d) makes claims of professional superiority which cannot be substantiated by the licensee, who shall have the burden of proof; or (e) offers bonuses or inducements in any form other than a discount or reduction in an established fee or price for a professional service or product. (ii) The following shall be deemed appropriate means of informing the public of the availability of professional services: (a) informational advertising not contrary to the foregoing prohibitions; and (b) the advertising in a newspaper, periodical or professional directory or on radio or television of fixed prices, or a stated range or prices, for specified routine professional services, provided that if there is an additional charge for related services which are an integral part of the overall service being provided by the licensee, the advertisement shall so state, and provided further that the advertisement indicates the period of time for which the advertised prices shall be in effect. (iii) (a) all licensees placing advertisements shall maintain, or cause to be maintained, an exact copy of each advertisement, transcript, tape or videotape thereof as appropriate for the medium used, for a period of one year after its last appearance. This copy shall be made available for inspection upon demand of the Education Department; (b) a licensee shall not compensate or give anything of value to representatives of the press, radio, television or other communications media in anticipation of or in return for professional publicity in a news item; (iv) Testimonials, demonstrations, dramatizations, or other portrayals of professional practice are permissible provided that they otherwise comply with the rules of professional conduct and further provided that the following conditions are satisfied: Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 98 (a) the patient or client expressly authorizes the portrayal in writing; (b) appropriate disclosure is included to prevent any misleading information or imagery as to the identity of the patient or client; (c) reasonable disclaimers are included as to any statements made or results achieved in a particular matter; (d) the use of fictional situations or characters may be used if no testimonials are included; and (e) fictional client testimonials are not permitted; (13) failing to respond within 30 days to written communications from the Education Department or the Department of Health and to make available any relevant records with respect to an inquiry or complaint about the licensee’s unprofessional conduct. The period of 30 days shall commence on the date when such communication was delivered personally to the licensee. If the communication is sent from either department by registered or certified mail, with return receipt requested, to the address appearing in the last registration, the period of 30 days shall commence on the date of delivery to the licensee, as indicated by the return receipt; (14) violating any term of probation or condition or limitation imposed on the licensee by the Board of Regents pursuant to Education Law, section 6511. §29.2 General provisions for health professions. (a) Unprofessional conduct shall also include, in the professions of: acupuncture athletic training audiology certified dental assisting chiropractic dental hygiene dentistry dietetics/nutrition licensed practical nursing massage therapy medicine midwifery occupational therapy occupational therapy assistant ophthalmic dispensing optometry pharmacy physical therapist assistant physical therapy physician assistant podiatry psychology registered professional nursing respiratory therapy respiratory therapy technician social work specialist assistant speech-language pathology, except for cases involving those professions licensed, certified or registered pursuant to the provisions of article 131 or 131-B of the Education Law in which a statement of charges of professional misconduct was not served on or before July 26, 1991, the effective date of chapter 606 of the Laws of 1991: (1) abandoning or neglecting a patient or client under and in need of immediate professional care, without making reasonable arrangements for the continuation of such care, or abandoning a professional employment by a group practice, hospital, clinic or other health care facility, without reasonable notice and under circumstances which seriously impair the delivery of professional care to patients or clients; (2) willfully harassing, abusing or intimidating a patient either physically or verbally; (3) failing to maintain a record for each patient which accurately reflects the evaluation and treatment of the patient. Unless otherwise provided by law, all patient records must be retained for at least six years. Obstetrical records and records of minor patients must be retained for at least six years, and until one year after the minor patient reaches the age of 21 years; (4) using the word “Doctor” in offering to perform professional services without also indicating the profession in which the licensee holds a doctorate; (5) failing to exercise appropriate supervision over persons who are authorized to practice only under the supervision of the licensed professional; (6) guaranteeing that satisfaction or a cure will result from the performance of professional services; (7) ordering of excessive tests, treatment, or use of treatment facilities not warranted by the condition of the patient; (8) claiming or using any secret or special method of treatment which the licensee refuses to divulge to the State Board for the profession; (9) failing to wear an identifying badge, which shall be conspicuously displayed and legible, indicating the practitioner’s name and professional title authorized pursuant to the Education Law, while practicing as an employee or operator of a hospital, clinic, group practice or multiprofessional facility, registered pharmacy, or at a commercial establishment offering health services to the public; (10) entering into an arrangement or agreement with a pharmacy for the compounding and/or dispensing of coded or specially marked prescriptions; (11) with respect to all professional practices conducted under an assumed name, other than facilities licensed pursuant to article 28 of the Public Health Law or article 13 of the Mental Hygiene Law, failing to post conspicuously at the site of such practice the names and the licensure field of all of the principal professional licensees engaged in practice at that site (i.e., principal partners, officers or principal shareholders); (12) issuing prescriptions for drugs and devices which do not contain the following information: the date written, the prescriber’s name, address, telephone number, profession and registration number, the patient's name, address, and age, the name, strength and quantity of the prescribed drug or device, as well as the directions for use by the patient. In addition, all prescriptions for controlled substances shall meet the requirements of article 33 of the Public Health Law; and (13) failing to use scientifically accepted infection prevention techniques appropriate to each profession for the Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 99 cleaning and sterilization or disinfection of instruments, devices, materials and work surfaces, utilization of protective garb, use of covers for contaminationprone equipment and the handling of sharp instruments. Such techniques shall include but not be limited to: (i) wearing of appropriate protective gloves at all times when touching blood, saliva, other body fluids or secretions, mucous membranes, nonintact skin, bloodsoiled items or bodily fluid-soiled items, contaminated surfaces, and sterile body areas, and during instrument cleaning and decontamination procedures; (ii) discarding gloves used following treatment of a patient and changing to new gloves if torn or damaged during treatment of a patient; washing hands and donning new gloves prior to performing services for another patient; and washing hands and other skin surfaces immediately if contaminated with blood or other body fluids; (iii) wearing of appropriate masks, gowns or aprons, and protective eyewear or chin-length plastic face shields whenever splashing or spattering of blood or other body fluids is likely to occur; (iv) sterilizing equipment and devices that enter the patient’s vascular system or other normally sterile areas of the body; (v) sterilizing equipment and devices that touch intact mucous membranes but do not penetrate the patient’s body or using high-level disinfection for equipment and devices which cannot be sterilized prior to use for a patient; (vi) using appropriate agents, including but not limited to detergents for cleaning all equipment and devices prior a sterilization or disinfection; (vii) cleaning, by the use of appropriate agents, including but not limited to detergents, equipment and devices which do not touch the patient or that only touch the intact skin of the patient; (viii) maintaining equipment and devices used for sterilization according to the manufacturer’s instructions; (ix) adequately monitoring the performance of all personnel, licensed or unlicensed, for whom the licensee is responsible regarding infection control techniques; (x) placing disposable used syringes, needles, scalpel blades, and other sharp instruments in appropriate puncture-resistant containers for disposal; and placing reusable needles, scalpel blades, and other sharp instruments in appropriate puncture-resistant containers until appropriately cleaned and sterilized; (xi) maintaining appropriate ventilation devices to minimize the need for emergency mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; (xii) refraining from all direct patient care and handling and handling of patient care equipment when the health care professional has exudative lesions or weeping dermatitis and the condition has not been medically evaluated and determined to be safe or capable of being safely protected against in providing direct patient care or in handling patient care equipment; and (xiii) placing all specimens of blood and body fluids in wellconstructed containers with secure lids to prevent leaking; and cleaning any spill of blood or other body fluid with an appropriate detergent and appropriate chemical germicide. (b) Unprofessional conduct shall also include, in those professions specified in section 18 of the Public Health Law and in the professions of acupuncture and massage, failing to provide access by qualified persons to patient information in accordance with the standards set forth in section 18 of the Public Health Law. In the professions of acupuncture and massage, qualified persons may appeal the denial of access to patient information in the manner set forth in section 18 of the Public Health Law to a record access committee appointed by the executive secretary of the appropriate State Board. Such record access review committees shall consist of not less than three, nor more than five members of the appropriate State Board. §29.7 Special provisions profession of pharmacy. for the (a) The requirements of this section set forth for written prescriptions shall also be applicable to electronically transmitted prescriptions, as defined in paragraph (7) of subdivision (a) of section 63.6 of this Title, unless otherwise indicated. Unprofessional conduct in the practice of pharmacy shall include all conduct prohibited by sections 29.1 and 29.2 of this Part except as provided in this section, and shall also include the following: (1) Dispensing a written prescription which does not bear the name, address and age of the patient for whom it is intended; the date on which it was written; the name, strength, if applicable, and the quantity of the drug prescribed; directions for use, if applicable; and, the name, address, telephone number, profession and signature of the prescriber; provided that the pharmacist may record on the prescription the address and age of the patient, the strength and quantity of the drug prescribed, the directions for use and the prescriber’s address, telephone number and profession if these are missing or unclear. If the address and age of the patient and the address, telephone number and profession of the prescriber are missing from the prescription, the pharmacist shall not be required to enter any of these items on the prescription if the information is otherwise readily available in the records of the pharmacy. Prescription labels must be legible. An order for a drug to be dispensed for an inpatient in a health care facility by the pharmacy of that facility may be transmitted to the pharmacy in accordance with written procedures approved by the medical or other authorized board of the facility. The items of information required by this paragraph which are found in the records regularly maintained by the facility and which are not essential to the execution of the order need not appear on the order which is transmitted to the pharmacy. A drug which is dispensed for an inpatient in a health care facility by the pharmacy of that facility may be labeled in accordance with the policy adopted by the medical or other authorized board of the facility. That policy shall insure that all information required by law to be placed on prescription labels is readily available to all concerned parties and that accuracy and safety prevail in the dispensing process. The address of a patient in a hospital or other health care facility may, for the purpose of a prescription, be Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 100 that of the facility. An order for a drug for a particular patient issued by a practitioner authorized to prescribe, and transmitted to a pharmacy for dispensing, shall constitute a prescription. Prescriptions written for controlled substances shall meet the requirements of Article 33 of the Public Health Law. (2) Failure by a pharmacist to reduce to writing a prescription transmitted orally, which writing shall include all the information required by paragraph (1) of this subdivision and the signature or readily identifiable initials of the receiver of the oral prescription, provided that oral prescriptions for controlled substances shall meet the requirements of article 33 of the Public Health Law. (3) Failure by a pharmacist dispensing a prescription to enter on the prescription the date of dispensing and to sign or initial legibly the prescription in such a manner as not to interfere with any other information on the prescription; provided that when the prescription is dispensed by an intern, the prescription shall bear the signature or readily identifiable initials of the intern and of the pharmacist who is supervising the intern. (4) Refilling a prescription without entering on the reverse of the prescription the date of the refill and the signature or readily identifiable initials of the pharmacist and of the intern, if applicable, dispensing the refill, except as provided in paragraph (8) of this subdivision. As a refill instruction, the pharmacist may accept a number of times, a time period, such as one year, or the Latin phrase pro re nata (abbreviated prn-meaning “as needed”). In the case of the latter, the pharmacist shall refill the prescription once only. The pharmacist receiving on oral order to refill a prescription shall reduce the order to writing and shall sign or initial it legibly as the recipient of the oral order. When a prescription is refilled, the date placed on the label shall be the date of the refill. (5) Using or substituting without authorization one or more drugs in the place of the drug or drugs specified in a prescription. Unauthorized use or substitution occurs if the same is done without the knowledge and consent of the prescriber. If other than the ingredients specified are utilized by the pharmacist in compounding or dispensing the prescription, improper substitution shall be presumed unless there shall be entered upon the reverse of the original prescription information setting forth the facts of the substitution, the date, time and manner in which authorization for substitution was given and the signature of the pharmacist who received such authorization. (6) Failure to identify a generic product dispensed on a prescription by writing the name of the manufacturer and of the distributor, if different, on the prescription and on the label, except as otherwise provided in Education Law, section 6816a(1)(c). (7) Failure to number prescriptions consecutively and file them in a numerical or other form which provides for ready retrieval of the prescriptions; provided that orders for drugs to be dispensed for inpatients in a health care facility, including but not limited to a general hospital, in the pharmacy of that facility under a drug distribution system approved by the medical or other authorized board of the facility, need not be numbered if the orders are otherwise readily available and retrievable; and, provided further that prescriptions for controlled substances shall be filed in accordance with the provisions of article 33 of the Public Health Law. (8) Failure to maintain in a form which provides for ready retrieval of prescriptions a daily record of all prescriptions filled and refilled which identifies clearly the practitioner who ordered the prescription, the patient for whom the prescription is intended, the signature or readily identifiable initials of the pharmacist who filled or refilled the prescription, and the number assigned to the prescription where applicable. The record of the dispensing of a drug for an inpatient in a health care facility, including but not limited to general hospital, by the pharmacy of that facility may be maintained in a form which is consistent with the record of the total health service provided to the patient provided the information required by this paragraph is readily retrievable and available. Original prescriptions filed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (7) of this subdivision may constitute the record of the initial filling of those prescriptions. The daily record may be maintained by a manual system or, alternatively, by an electronic data processing system which meets the following requirements: (i) The system shall provide adequate safeguards against improper manipulation or alteration of stored records. (ii) Arrangements shall be made which assure completeness and continuity of prescription records if the relationship between a pharmacy and a supplier of data processing services terminates for any reason. (iii) The system shall provide retrieval of information regarding original dispensing and the refilling of prescriptions. (iv) A pharmacist, and a pharmacy intern, if applicable, using a computerized system shall sign or initial the original prescription at the time of the first dispensing as provided in paragraph (3) of this subdivision and the initials of the pharmacist shall be entered into the computer record of the dispensing. (v) For all refills of a prescription, the records introduced into the system shall be sufficient if: (a) the initials of the pharmacist who dispensed the refill are entered by such pharmacist at the time of dispensing; and (b) a printout is produced of all prescriptions filled and refilled each day and the pharmacist(s) whose initials appear(s) on the printout sign(s) the printout to indicate that it is a accurate record. (vi) A pharmacy that employs a computerized system shall have an auxiliary procedure which shall be used for documentation of all new and refilled prescriptions dispensed during system downtime. The auxiliary procedure shall provide for the entry into the computer of all data collected during the downtime, and the pharmacist shall insure that the maximum number of refills authorized on the original prescription has not been exceeded. (vii) Only pharmacists and pharmacy interns shall enter prescription data into the computerized system and access the data, except as provided in paragraph (21) of this subdivision. (9) Except as otherwise provided in 16 CFR Part 1700 (Code of Federal Regulations, 1984 edition, Superintendent of Public Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402: 1984, available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, Office of the Professions, State Education Building – 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234), failure to package a drug in a child-resistant Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 101 container unless either the prescriber or the patient requests otherwise. Such request shall be documented in the records of the pharmacy. Child-resistant containers shall not be reused. (10) Failure by a supervising pharmacist to provide adequate supervision of a registered establishment. A supervising pharmacist must be a full-time employee of the establishment. For the purposes of this section, full-time shall be deemed to be 30 or more hours per week. In those circumstances in which an establishment operates for less than 30 hours per week, the supervising pharmacist shall be employed for a majority of the hours that the establishment operates. The State Board of Pharmacy shall be notified within seven days of any change in the identity of the supervising pharmacist of a registered establishment. Such notification shall be made by the owner of the registered establishment. (11) Advertisements of the prices of prescription drugs which do not comply with the following provisions: (i) The advertised price shall be in effect for a period of time stated in the advertisement. (ii) When the advertising of prescription prices forms part of a larger advertisement which includes the offering of general merchandise, the advertising pertaining to prescription prices shall be separated physically, such as by a box, from the advertising pertaining to general merchandise. (iii) Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to prevent the use in advertising of a statement to the effect that the price for which any prescription will be filled is available on request. (iv) Such advertisement shall comply with the "Prescription Drug Consumer Price Listing" requirements set forth in section 200.200 of title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (1984 edition, Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402: 1984, available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, Office of the Professions, State Education Building – 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234). (12) Advertising or soliciting professional practice by means of providing physicians, or others authorized to prescribe, with prescription blanks imprinted with either the name of the pharmacist or the name of the pharmacy. (13) Failing to make prescription fee or price information readily available by providing such information upon request and upon the presentation of a prescription for pricing or dispensing. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the quotation of price information on a prescription drug to a potential consumer by telephone. (14) Placing in stock of any pharmacy any part of any prescription compounded or dispensed which is returned by a patient; provided, however, that in a health care facility, including but not limited to a general hospital, which has its own pharmacy and in which unit-dose medication is dispensed to inpatients, each dose being individually sealed and labeled with the name of the drug, dosage strength, manufacturer’s control number and expiration date, the unused unit dose of medication may be returned to the pharmacy of the facility for redispensing; and provided further that unused medication may be returned to pharmacies by residential health care facilities in accordance with the provisions of 10 NYCRR 415.18(f) or by other facilities, including but not limited to county correctional facilities, provided that such other facilities utilize standards, policies and procedures determined by the State Board of Pharmacy to be equivalent to those enumerated in 10 NYCRR 415.18(f). (15) Repacking of drugs in a pharmacy, except by a pharmacist or under his/her immediate and personal supervision. Labels on repacked drugs shall bear sufficient information for proper identification and safety. A repacking record shall be maintained, including the name, strength, lot number, quantity and name of the manufacturer and/or distributor of the drug repacked, the date of the repacking, the number of packages prepared, the number of dosage units in each package, the signature of the person performing the repacking operation, the signature of the pharmacist who supervised the repacking, and such other identifying marks added by the pharmacy for internal recordkeeping purposes. Drugs repacked for in-house use only shall have an expiration date 12 months, or 50 percent of the time remaining to the manufacturer’s expiration date, whichever is less, from the date of repacking. For the repacking of drugs by manufacturers and wholesalers, the provisions of parts 210 and 211 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (1984 edition, Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402: 1984, available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, Office of the Professions, State Education Building – 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234), shall apply. Repacking records shall be maintained for five years and shall be made available to the department for review and copying. (16) Holding for sale, offering for sale and selling adulterated and/or misbranded drugs, devices and cosmetics. Any drug, device or cosmetic shall be deemed to be adulterated and/or misbranded if: (i) it is not manufactured in accordance with the good manufacturing practices specified in parts 210 and 211 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (1984 edition, Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402: 1984, available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, Office of the Professions, State Education Building – 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234), provided that a drug manufactured by a pharmacy for in-house use may be manufactured in accordance with protocols, including documentation by means of a batch record, which insure the meeting of established standards for purity and potency; and (ii) at any time it fails to meet standards for purity, potency, labeling, safety and effectiveness established under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, as amended (June 1981, Superintendent of Public Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, Office of the Professions, State Education Building – 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234). (17) Holding for sale, offering for sale, or selling: (i) any drug later than the date, if any, marked upon the label as indicative of the date beyond which the contents cannot be expected beyond reasonable doubt to be safe and effective; provided, however, that when such drug is identified as an outdated drug by segregation from regular stock or by other means, the holding of such drug beyond its expiration date shall not be deemed a violation of this paragraph. When Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 102 the expiration date is expressed by month and year, the expiration date shall be the last day of the month indicated; or (ii) any drug, the nature of which requires storage under special conditions of temperature control as indicated either on the labeling, in the directions for storage of said drug contained in an official compendium, or as directed by common prudence, unless such special condition of temperature control shall have been complied with during the entire period of time in which such drug has been held for sale. (18) The sale of drugs at auction without filing with the State Board of Pharmacy, at least seven days prior to the date of said auction, a notice giving the date, time and place of the auction. At such auction, drugs in bulk or in open containers may be sold in one lot only to a registered pharmacy. The drugs shall be removed to the premises of the purchaser promptly and the board notified as to the disposition of such drugs; provided, however, that drugs found, by the representative of the board assigned to such auction, to be unfit for human use by virtue of age, adulteration and/or misbranding shall be destroyed voluntarily in the presence of the said representative or shall be quarantined by the representative pending action for seizure and destruction. (19) Holding for sale, offering for sale, selling or distributing a new drug or an investigational new drug, which is not recognized as a new drug or an investigational new drug under the provisions of part 310 or 312 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (1984 edition, Superintendent of Public Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402: 1984, available at New York State Board of Pharmacy, Office of the Professions, State Education Building – 2nd floor, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234). (20) Abandoning the premises of a registered establishment. Premises shall be deemed abandoned if the registrant vacates the premises without surrendering the certificate of registration to the State Board of Pharmacy and without making appropriate arrangements for the disposal of prescription-required drugs. (21) Aiding and abetting an unlicensed person to dispense drugs. (i) Subject to the limitations set forth in subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph, an unlicensed person may assist a pharmacist in the dispensing of drugs by: (a) receiving written or electronically transmitted prescriptions, except that in the case of electronically transmitted prescriptions the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall review the prescription to determine whether in his or her professional judgment it shall be accepted by the pharmacy, and if accepted, the pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall enter his or her initials into the records of the pharmacy; (b) typing prescription labels; (c) keying prescription data for entry into a computer-generated file or retrieving prescription data from the file, provided that such computer-generated file shall provide for verification of all information needed to fill the prescription by a pharmacist prior to the dispensing of the prescription, meaning that the pharmacist shall review and approve such information and enter his or her initials or other personal identifier into the recordkeeping system prior to the dispensing of the prescription or of the prescription refill; (d) getting drugs from stock and returning them to stock; (e) getting prescription files and other manual records from storage and locating prescriptions; (f) counting dosage units of drugs; (g) placing dosage units of drugs in appropriate containers; (h) affixing the prescription label to the containers; (i) preparing manual records of dispensing for the signature or initials of the pharmacist; and (j) handling or delivering completed prescriptions to the patient or the person authorized to act on behalf of the patient and, in accordance with section 63.6(b)(8) of this Title, advising the patient or person authorized to act on behalf of the patient of the availability of counseling to be conducted by the pharmacist or pharmacist intern. (ii) Limitations on assistance by an unlicensed person. (a) No pharmacist shall obtain the assistance of more than two unlicensed persons in the performance of the activities set forth in clauses (b)-(j) of subparagraph (i) of this paragraph. The pharmacist shall provide the degree of supervision of such persons as may be appropriate to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Part and Part 63 of this Title. Individuals who are responsible for the act of placing drugs which are in unit-dose packaging into medication carts as part of an approved unitdose drug distribution system for patients in institutional settings shall be exempt from such ratio, provided that such individuals are not also engaged in performing the activities set forth in clauses (b)-(j) of subparagraph (i) of this paragraph. (b) Unlicensed persons shall not be authorized to: (1) receive oral prescriptions from prescribers; (2) interpret and evaluate a prescription for conformance with legal requirements, authenticity, accuracy and interaction of the prescribed drug with other known prescribed and over-the-counter drugs; (3) make determinations of therapeutic equivalency as such determinations apply to generic substitution; (4) measure, weigh, compound or mix ingredients; (5) sign or initial any record of dispensing required to be maintained by law; (6) counsel patients; or (7) perform any other function involving the exercise of professional judgment. (c) No drug which is dispensed with the assistance of an unlicensed person, as provided in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph, shall be dispensed without the review and approval of the pharmacist. (b) Nothing in this Part shall be construed to prevent the ownership of a firm or corporate practice in this State by an unlicensed person or persons or to prevent any contractual arrangement computing the salary of professional employees or the amount due the owner of such firm or corporation or a person leasing space or equipment to such firm or corporation on the basis of a percentage of the receipts from the performance of professional services. This Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 103 provision shall apply in lieu of section 29.1(b)(4) of this Part. (c) The requirements of this section and sections 29.1 and 29.2 of this Part shall be applicable to nonresident establishments, as defined in section 6808-b of the Education Law, to the extent prescribed in section 63.8 of this Title. COMMISSIONER’S REGULATIONS Part 59 General Provisions §59.1 Applicability. (a) As used in this Subchapter, license shall mean a permanent authorization, issued pursuant to title VIII of the Education Law, to practice a profession or to use a professional title. (b) The provisions of this Part shall apply to admission to the licensing examination and to the issuance of licenses in each of the professions supervised by the Board of Regents except as may otherwise be provided in this Subchapter with respect to specific professions. §59.2 Education requirements. (a) An applicant for a professional license shall satisfy all education requirements before being admitted to a professional licensing examination, except that the department may accept professional examination grades earned in another state or jurisdiction of the United States prior to completion of professional education if the applicant was licensed in that jurisdiction on the basis of said examination and both the grades and the examination satisfy requirements in this State. Education requirements for a professional license shall include any preprofessional education or experience required as a prerequisite for admission to a registered program of professional education. The department, in its discretion, may accept in satisfaction of a professional education requirement, the completion of an approved or registered program or a program accredited by a professional accreditation organization acceptable to the department. The department, in its discretion, may also accept graduation by a transfer student from such a program, provided such student has completed not less than the final year of professional education in such program subsequent to the date of approval, registration or accreditation of the program and approval of the accrediting organization by the department. The department may accept graduation by a transfer student from an unaccredited program of professional education, provided such student satisfies the educational requirements of statute and regulation in accordance with this Part and as otherwise provided in this Subchapter with respect to the specific profession, and further provided that such student completes not less than the final year in the unaccredited program to which he has transferred. (b) Education and experience required for the issuance of a license or limited permit shall have been performed in accordance with all requirements of the jurisdiction in which it took place. The department may require contemporaneous evidence of the education and/or experience required for the issuance of a license or limited permit. (c) Applicants who seek to meet the education requirement for licensure through programs that are not registered by the department or accredited by a professional accreditation organization acceptable to the department in accordance with this Subchapter, shall submit adequate evidence of verification of his or her educational credentials by an acceptable independent credentials verification organization, unless the department determines that such credentials are verified by an acceptable independent credentials verification organization through alternative means prescribed in this Subchapter for a particular profession or no acceptable independent credentials verification organization exists for the particular profession. An acceptable independent credentials verification organization shall mean an organization which the department determines is a reliable verifier of educational credentials and meets requirements that include but are not limited to the following: the organization is a verifier of educational credentials of applicants for licensure in the particular profession, has satisfactory procedures in place to ensure the accuracy of the information it collects, has satisfactory recordkeeping and reporting procedures, and verifies such credentials directly with the educational institution from which the credential was earned. Any cost of such independent verification shall be the responsibility of the applicant, pursuant to arrangements between the applicant and the independent credentials verification organization, and shall not be payable to the department. The verification of educational credentials by an acceptable independent credentials verification organization for authenticity purposes as prescribed in this subdivision shall not constitute a determination by the department that the licensure requirements have been met. §59.3 English proficiency requirement. An applicant for licensure whose application is based upon credit granted for the completion of courses of study in a country where English is not the principal language spoken shall demonstrate proficiency in English by passing an examination in English proficiency acceptable to the department or by passing a licensing examination acceptable to the department given in English. §59.4 Citizenship or immigration status requirements. In those professions where citizenship or immigration status is required for licensure, an applicant shall submit evidence satisfactory to the department of compliance with such requirement. §59.5 Professional examinations. (a) The department may develop its own examinations or may select in whole or in part examinations developed or administered by other organizations. Unless specifically authorized by the department, no examination shall be deemed acceptable which has been used in its entirety during the five years previous to the current Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 104 administration. (b) Applications for admission to a licensing examination, including all required fees shall be completed and filed not less than 60 days prior to the examination. When the department finds that the application is complete and that the requirements for admission to an examination have been met, it will issue to the applicant an admission card which will include the date, time and place of the examination and entitle the applicant to admission thereto. (1) The department may accept applications for admission to department conducted examinations after the filing date for such examinations provided that the department is able to review and process such applications in a timely manner and that there are adequate examination facilities and materials available. Such applications shall require the payment of the late filing fee enumerated in Section 59.9 of this Part, which shall be in addition to the regular admission or reexamination fee. If, upon review of a late application, the department determines that the applicant is ineligible to be admitted to the examination, the department shall retain the late filing fee. In the event that the department is unable to review a late application, the late filing fee shall be refunded. (2) The department may waive the late filing fee or delay the required date for filing in cases where notification to the applicant of the results of the previous examination are released less than 75 days prior to the next examination. (c) For the purpose of identification for admission to the examination, the applicant shall present the current admission card with a photograph attached and, at the conclusion of the examination, return the card to the department representative conducting the examination. A candidate shall permit fingerprints to be taken during each part of an examination. (d) Licensing examinations shall be held at times and places determined by the commissioner and conducted under the following conditions. Any candidate violating such conditions may be dismissed from the examination by the department representative, and the examination paper of such candidate shall be deemed a failure. At the discretion of the department, such candidate may be denied admission to subsequent licensing examinations. (1) No candidate shall enter any examination more than 60 minutes after the scheduled admission time, nor shall any candidate leave the examination until 60 minutes have elapsed from the scheduled admission time. No candidate shall leave a department administered practical or clinical examination until dismissed by the chief examiner. (2) Compensatory time may be granted candidates arriving late for an examination, at the discretion of the department. (3) A candidate shall not obtain unauthorized possession of examination materials. (4) During the examination, no candidate shall give or receive help, or communicate with any other candidate in any way, except upon the express permission of the department representative. (5) A candidate shall bring into the examination room only such books and other materials as are indicated on the admission card and permitted by the department. (6) A candidate shall not remove from the examination room any of the materials provided for an examination, and shall not reproduce or reconstruct any portion of the examination or answer paper, or aid in such reproduction or reconstruction by any means, unless authorized by the department. Such materials include examination booklets, individual examination questions, answer sheets or score sheets, instructions and any reference tables or papers which were provided by the department and which may have been used in the course of the examination. (e) Papers will be scored and candidates notified of success or failure by the department or its designee. If the candidate has failed, the department will advise when and on what basis the candidate may be reexamined and of any procedure for review of the failed examination. (f) The passing score in each component of each part of the licensing examination shall be determined as provided by law and shall be computed without rounding. In those examinations administered by the department, unless otherwise provided in the regulations pertaining to a specific profession, a candidate may retain credit for scores earned on examination parts for a period not to exceed five years from the examination date. A candidate who is reexamined in a part already passed shall not retain credit for such part from earlier examinations. In those professions which use national or regional examinations administered by the Department, this subdivision shall apply whether or not the examination is taken in the State of New York. (g) In those professions where reviews of examination papers are permitted, candidates will be allowed to review only those parts of the examination which they failed with a score of 60 or higher. In those professions which permit candidates to pass on average all scores used in computing the average are reviewable. A request for review of an examination paper or score may be made in writing to the department not later than 30 days after examination grades are released by the department. A candidate shall not remove from the reviewing site any of the materials provided for the review of an examination given previously, and shall not reproduce or reconstruct any portion of the examination or the answer paper, or aid in such reproduction or reconstruction by any means, unless authorized by the department. No one other than the candidate will be permitted access to examination materials. Where examinations are offered under contract with testing agencies, reviews shall be consistent with these contracts, where applicable. All reviews shall be conducted at sites selected and supervised by the department or an authorized testing agency. (h) An applicant who has been admitted to a professional licensing examination conducted by the department and subsequently fails to appear for such an examination twice shall forfeit any remaining fee credits for that examination. The applicant, upon subsequently applying for readmission to that examination, shall pay all required admission fees. §59.6 License by endorsement. An applicant for endorsement of a license issued by another jurisdiction shall establish that the applicant: Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 105 (a) meets all requirements of section 6506 (6) of the Education Law; (b) has had satisfactory professional experience of at least two years following initial licensure, unless a different period is provided in the regulations pertaining to a particular profession; and (c) has not attempted unsuccessfully a licensing examination used by the State of New York either prior to or after making application for licensure by endorsement, unless such applicant has later passed a comparable licensing examination. §59.7 Licenses and initial registrations. When the candidate fulfills all requirements for licensure, the department shall issue a first registration certificate and a license. The first registration shall be for the remainder of the applicable registration period. Pursuant to section 6502 of the Education Law the registration fee shall be prorated for those persons newly licensed and registered, or reactivating registration, during the second or third year of a registration period. §59.8 Registration practice. for professional professional office, registration certificates shall be obtained for each office bearing the licensee’s name and the exact address of each such office upon making proper application to the department and submitting a fee. Where practice is carried on in other than individual offices, each licensee shall have a current registration certificate available for inspection at all times. (d) Registration periods for each profession shall be in accordance with schedules established by the department. (e) Each professional practitioner shall notify the department in writing of any change of name or address not later than 30 days after such change. (f) When an applicant or licensee pays a fee by a personal check and it is subsequently not honored by the issuing institution, the applicant or licensee must subsequently pay by a certified check, a bank check, or a money order. The replacement payment shall include any late and penalty charges required under section 6502 (3) and (7) of the Education Law. (g) Any licensee who fails to submit a replacement registration payment as required in subdivision (f) of this section, shall have his or her registration voided 60 days from the date the department sends notification that said fee was not honored by the issuing institution. §59.9 Special service fees. The department will charge the following fees for special services not otherwise provided by Education Law: (a) for the issuance of a trainee permit in ophthalmic dispensing, $25; (b) for certification of completion of pharmacy internship, $20; (c) for admission to the fundamental theory section of the examination in landscape architecture, $50 and for each subsequent reexamination, $50, the remainder of the fee set forth in section 7324 of the Education Law to be paid prior to admission to the remainder of the examination; (d) for certification of licensure or examination grades to another jurisdiction, $20; (e) for certification in acupuncture of a licensed physician or dentist, $150; (f) for the issuance of an additional registration certificate, $10; (g) for the issuance of a letter of eligibility to undertake clinical clerkships, $30; (h) for the issuance of a Medical Science Knowledge Profile (MSKP) or satisfactory equivalent examination certificate to undertake clinical clerkships, $20; (i) for review by the department of an examination conducted by the department, $25; (j) for rescoring of an examination conducted by the department, $20; (k) for verification by the department of the transcript of an applicant or licensee, $20; (l) for admission to the Special Purpose Examination (SPEX) in medicine, $175; (m) for late filing for admission to a licensing examination, $50; (n) for written verification of licensure and/or registration status, $10; and (o) for reregistration of a licensee whose six-month registration has expired due to his or her failure to satisfy child support or combined child and spousal support obligations as prescribed in section 3-503 of the General Obligations Law, an amount equal to the licensee’s registration fee. §59.10 Professional service corporations. (a) Applications to the State Education Department for the issuance of a certificate pursuant to Business Corporation Law, section 1503 (b) (ii), shall be made by submitting to the department a fully executed certificate of incorporation which complies with the provisions of such section and of section 1512 of such law, and which sets forth or has annexed to it an affidavit of one of the original officers, directors or shareholders of the corporation setting forth the name of each individual who is to be one of the original shareholders, directors or officers of the corporation. (b) If the name of a proposed professional service corporation contains the name of a deceased person, the certificate of incorporation, when submitted to the department for the issuance of a certificate pursuant to Business Corporation Law, (a) Each licensee shall be responsible for registering with the department. Failure to register shall subject the practitioner to the late fee set forth in section 6502 (3) of the Education Law. Any practitioner who willfully refuses to register shall be subject to the penalties set forth in section 6511 of such law. (b) A licensee not practicing or using a restricted title in New York State or an individual practicing only in a setting which is exempt from licensure in accordance with law may allow registration to lapse without being subject to the late fee set forth in section 6502 of the Education Law, by notifying the department of their cessation of practice or exemption in the State. At such time as the licensee may choose to resume practice or enter practice in a nonexempt setting in New York State, a registration certificate may be issued upon the filing of a proper application and the payment of the required registration fee. (c) Registration certificates shall be conspicuously displayed by each licensee in each office in which the profession is practiced. In instances where licensees regularly practice at more than one Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 106 section 1503 (b) (ii) shall be accompanied by an affidavit of one of the subscribers to the certificate of incorporation establishing compliance with the provisions of Business Corporation Law, section 1512 (a) (2). (c) A certificate pursuant to Business Corporation Law, section 1503 (b) (ii) may be issued when: (1) the proposed name of the corporation appropriately describes the profession practiced and the services to be provided; and (2) if the proposed name of the corporation includes a reference to a specialized area of professional practice, satisfactory evidence is submitted of compliance with any provision of Part 29 of this Title, rules of the Board of Regents restricting or regulating the use of specialty titles or announcements of limitations of practice in the particular profession. §59.11 Refunds. Monies received by the State Education Department pursuant to section 110 of the Education Law, may be refunded as follows: (a) Full refunds may be granted when: (1) the fee overpayment; submitted is an §59.12 Training regarding child abuse and maltreatment reporting. (a) All persons applying on or after January 1, 1991 for the issuance or renewal of a license/registration or limited permit in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, dental hygiene, registered professional nursing, podiatry, optometry, psychology and any other professions listed in section 6507 (3) (a) of the Education Law shall submit documentation acceptable to the department of the completion of two hours of coursework or training regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and maltreatment and obtained either from a provider approved by the department pursuant to Part 57 of this Title or as a matriculant in a registered program under Section 52.2 (c) (12) of this Title, unless the applicant receives an exemption from such requirement as provided in subdivision (b) of this section. (b) The department may exempt an applicant or licensee from the coursework or training requirement of subdivision (a) of this section upon receipt of a written application for such exemption establishing that there would be no need to complete the coursework or training because the nature of the applicant's/licensee's practice excludes contact with children. It is the professional responsibility of the licensee who holds an exemption to notify the department in writing, within 30 days, when the nature of the practice changes to the extent that the basis for the exemption ceases to exist. §59.13 Training regarding control practices. infection course work or training requirement; or as provided in subdivision (c) of this section, may be exempted from the requirement to document the completion of such course work or training. (b) The department may exempt an applicant for registration from the course work or training required pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section either upon receipt of: (1) a written application for such exemption establishing that there would be no need to complete the course work or training because the nature of the applicant’s/licensee’s practice does not require the use of infection control techniques or barrier precautions; or (2) documentation satisfactory to the department that the applicant/licensee has completed course work or training equivalent to that approved by the department, pursuant to Part 58 of this Title. (c) Maintenance or submittal of documentation pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section is not required of any dentist or podiatrist who is subject to the provisions of paragraph (f) of subdivision (1) of section 2805-k of the Public Health Law and who attests at the time of registration that documentation requirements have been met as required in the Public Health Law. (d) If there are changes in the nature of the practice of a licensee who has been granted an exemption under paragraph (b) (1) of this section and such changes require the licensee to use infection control techniques or barrier precautions, the licensee shall notify the department in writing of the change within 30 days of such change. If the licensee has not taken approved course work or training in infection control and barrier precautions during the four years immediately preceding the change in practice, the licensee shall obtain such course work or training within 90 days of the change in practice. (2) the requested service cannot be provided; (3) a written request for the refund of a registration fee is received prior to the beginning of that registration period; or (4) a registrant who has paid a registration fee is deceased prior to the beginning of that registration period and a written refund request is received within one year of the date of death. (b) Partial refunds not to exceed 50 percent of the licensure application fee may be granted if an applicant for any practice authorization elects to withdraw such application prior to the issuance or denial by the department of such authorization, and such applicant has not been admitted to a department conducted examination. Each applicant who has at any time withdrawn an application and received a refund shall be required to pay in full all fees upon submitting any subsequent application. (a) Commencing July 2, 1994, all persons applying for the issuance of a license or renewal of a registration in dentistry, registered professional nursing, licensed practical nursing, podiatry, optometry, dental hygiene, or any other profession subject to the requirements of section 6505-b of the Education Law shall affirm to the department, and maintain and/or submit such documentation as the department may require, that they have completed, in the four years immediately preceding such application, course work or training in infection control and barrier precautions which is approved by the department, pursuant to Part 58 of this Title, or which is approved as part of a program registered pursuant to Part 52 of this Title. As provided in subdivision (b) of this section, an applicant may be exempted from the infection control and barrier precautions Note: Laws and regulations are current as of the date of publication. 107 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE ABANDONMENT ........................................ Surrender Certificate......................................29.7 (a) (20)....................................................................102 ABANDONMENT ........................................ Definition .......................................................29.7 (a) (20)....................................................................102 ABANDONMENT ....................................... Patient/Client..................................................29.2 (a) (1)........................................................................98 ADULTERATING ........................................ Misbranding ...................................................6815 (1) ............................................................................52 ADULTERATION ........................................ Sale of Drugs..................................................29.7 (a) (16)....................................................................102 ADULTERATION ........................................ Drugs/Devices................................................6811 (10) .........................................................................49 ADVERTISEMENT...................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (19) ..........................................................................43 ADVERTISING ............................................ RX Blanks ......................................................29.7 (a) (12)....................................................................101 ADVERTISING ............................................ Unprofessional Conduct ................................29.1 (b) (12)......................................................................98 ADVERTISING ............................................ Conditions ......................................................29.7 (a) (11)....................................................................101 ANTISEPTIC ................................................ Definition .......................................................6802 (14) ..........................................................................43 APOTHECARY ............................................ Use Of Term...................................................6811 (6) ............................................................................49 AUCTION-DRUGS ...................................... Notice .............................................................29.7 (a) (18)....................................................................102 AUCTION ..................................................... Sale/RX Drugs ...............................................6808 (7) ............................................................................46 BADGES ....................................................... Identification (Law) .......................................6808.a ...............................................................................46 BADGES ....................................................... Identification (Rules) .....................................29.2 (a) (9)........................................................................99 BLANKS, PRESCRIPTION ......................... Prescribers Name ...........................................6810 (8) ............................................................................48 BLANKS, PRESCRIPTION ......................... Prescribers Signature .....................................6810 (8) ...........................................................................48 BOARD OF PHARMACY ........................... Powers and Duties..........................................6804 ..................................................................................43 CANCELING PRESCRIPTION ................... Requirements .................................................29.7 (a) (3)......................................................................100 CERTIFICATES............................................ Display of Registration ..................................59.8 (c)............................................................................105 CHANGE NAME/ADDRESS ...................... Notification ....................................................59.8 (e)............................................................................105 CHANGE/LOCATION ................................. Pharmacy........................................................6808 (2) (d).......................................................................45 CHILD ABUSE ............................................. Reporting........................................................59.12 ...............................................................................106 CHOICE......................................................... Patient's Freedom of.......................................29.1 (b) (2 & 3) ................................................................97 CITIZENSHIP ............................................... Immigration Status.........................................59.4 .................................................................................104 CITIZENSHIP ............................................... Requirements .................................................6805 (6) ............................................................................44 CIVIL ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS and CIVIL PENALTIES .................................6516 ..................................................................................91 COAL TAR ................................................... Hair Dyes .......................................................6818-a...............................................................................55 COAL TAR ................................................... Drugs/Cosmetic..............................................6820 ..................................................................................55 COLLEGES OF PHARMACY NYS............ Contact Information ....................................... ..........................................................................................12 COMPLAINTS.............................................. Professionals ..................................................17.1 ...................................................................................92 COMPUTER LOG ........................................ Record Keeping .............................................29.7 (a)(8).......................................................................101 COMPUTER.................................................. Signatures.......................................................29.7 (a)(8)(iv) .................................................................101 COMPUTER.................................................. Refill Records ................................................29.7 (a)(8)(v) ..................................................................101 COMPUTER.................................................. Access ............................................................29.7 (a)(8)(vii)................................................................101 COMPUTER.................................................. Access ............................................................29.7 (a)(21).....................................................................102 CONFIDENTIALITY ................................... Patient.............................................................29.1 (b) (8)........................................................................98 CONSENT ORDER ...................................... Disciplinary Proceedings ...............................17.5 ..................................................................................93 CONTAINERS ............................................. Child resistant ................................................29.7 (a) (9)......................................................................101 CONTINUING EDUCATION...................... Mandatory Requirements (Law)....................6827 ..................................................................................57 CONTINUING EDUCATION...................... Mandatory Requirements (Regulations)........63.7 ...................................................................................65 CONTINUING EDUCATION...................... Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................20 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE .................... Exceptions......................................................6811-a (6) .........................................................................50 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE .................... Defined...........................................................6802 (20) ..........................................................................43 COPIES OF PRESCRIPTIONS .................... Controlled Substance Prescriptions ...............6810 (3) ............................................................................47 COPIES OF PRESCRIPTIONS .................... Education Department Request .....................6810 (5) ............................................................................48 COPIES OF RECORDS................................ Patient Request...............................................29.1 (b) (7)........................................................................98 COSMETIC SAMPLE .................................. Use Of ............................................................6818-a...............................................................................55 COSMETICS ................................................. Adulterated/Misbranded Defined ..................6818 ..................................................................................55 108 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE COSMETICS ................................................. Defined...........................................................6802 (8) ............................................................................42 COUNSELING REGULATIONS ................ Requirements .................................................63.6 (b) (8)........................................................................63 COUNSELING.............................................. Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................14 DAW .............................................................. Requirements .................................................6810 (6) ............................................................................48 DEFINITIONS .............................................. Various ...........................................................6802 ..................................................................................42 DEPARTMENT, PHARMACY ................... Sign ................................................................63.6 (b) (5)........................................................................62 DEPARTMENT, PHARMACY ................... General Information.......................................6808 (2) (f) .......................................................................45 DEVICE......................................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (16) .........................................................................43 DIALYSIS SOLUTIONS.............................. Limited Registration ......................................6808(2)(g).........................................................................45 DISCIPLINE.................................................. Proceedings ....................................................Part 17...............................................................................92 DISCONTINUANCE.................................... Establishment Registrations...........................Guidelines.........................................................................11 DISCONTINUATION .................................. Pharmacy Drugs/Records ..............................6812 (1) ............................................................................51 DISCOUNTING ............................................ General Information.......................................29.1 (b) (12) (e) ................................................................98 DISPENSING ................................................ Authorized Prescribers...................................6807 ..................................................................................44 DISPENSING ................................................ Prescription Requirements .............................6810 ..................................................................................47 DISPENSING ................................................ Exemptions.....................................................6807 ..................................................................................44 DISPLAY....................................................... Registration ....................................................59.8 (c)............................................................................105 DISTRIBUTOR............................................. Defined...........................................................6811-a (8) (a)....................................................................50 DRUGS.......................................................... Patient Returns ...............................................29.7 (a) (14)....................................................................102 DRUGS.......................................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (7) ............................................................................42 EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS ................. Professional/Preprofessional..........................24.3 (b) .............................................................................95 EDUCATION ................................................ Pharmacy Curriculum ....................................52.29 .................................................................................58 EDUCATION ................................................ General Requirements....................................59.2 .................................................................................103 ELECTRONIC TRANSMITTAL ................. Dispensing......................................................29.7 (a) (1)......................................................................100 ELECTRONIC TRANSMITTAL ................. Defined...........................................................63.6 (a) (7)........................................................................61 ELECTRONIC TRANSMITTAL ................. Database .........................................................63.6 (a) (7)........................................................................61 ELECTRONIC TRANSMITTAL ................. Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................28 ELECTRONIC DATA .................................. See Computer.................................................29.7 (a) (8)......................................................................101 ENDORSEMENT ......................................... Pharmacist Requirements ..............................63.5 ...................................................................................60 ENDORSEMENT ......................................... General Licensure Requirements...................59.6 .................................................................................105 ENGLISH ...................................................... Proficiency .....................................................59.3 .................................................................................104 EQUIPMENT ................................................ Pharmacy Requirements ................................63.6 (b) (1)........................................................................62 ESTABLISHMENTS .................................... Registering and Operating .............................6808 ..................................................................................45 EXAMINATIONS......................................... General Requirements....................................59.5 .................................................................................104 EXAMINATIONS......................................... Content ...........................................................63.3 (a)..............................................................................60 EXAMINATIONS......................................... Refunds ..........................................................59.5 (b) ...........................................................................104 EXAMINATIONS......................................... Applications ...................................................59.5 (b) ...........................................................................104 EXAMINATIONS......................................... Review............................................................59.5 (g) ...........................................................................105 EXEMPT PERSONS..................................... Dispensing......................................................6807 ..................................................................................44 EXPIRATION DATE.................................... In-House.........................................................29.7 (a) (15)....................................................................102 EXPIRATION DATE.................................... On Prescription Package................................29.7 (a) (17)....................................................................102 FACTORY..................................................... Inspections .....................................................6823 ..................................................................................56 FALSE LABELING ...................................... ........................................................................6815 (2) (a).......................................................................52 FAXED PRESCRIPTIONS........................... Hospitals.........................................................29.7 (a) (1)......................................................................100 FAXING ........................................................ See Electronic transmittal FDC ACT (FEDERAL)................................. Defined...........................................................6802 (17) ..........................................................................43 FEE SPLITTING ........................................... Illegal .............................................................29.1 (b) (3)........................................................................97 FEE SPLITTING ........................................... Unprofessional Conduct ................................29.1 (b) (4)........................................................................97 FEES/ESTABLISHMENT............................ Registration ....................................................6808 ..................................................................................45 FIRE, FLOOD, ETC...................................... Notification ....................................................63.6 (a) (5)........................................................................60 FIRE............................................................... Special Provisions..........................................6812 (1) ............................................................................51 109 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE FOREIGN LANGUAGE............................... English Competency .....................................59.3 .................................................................................104 FPGEC ........................................................... Licensure ........................................................63.1 ...................................................................................59 FORMULARY .............................................. Defined...........................................................6802 (3) ............................................................................42 FREE SALE................................................... Export.............................................................63.6 (c) 6...........................................................................65 FREEDOM OF CHOICE .............................. Patient's ..........................................................29.1 (b) (2-3) ....................................................................97 GENERIC DRUGS ....................................... Prescription Labeling .....................................29.7 (a) (6)......................................................................101 HEARING PANEL ....................................... Process............................................................6510.3 ...............................................................................87 HOMEOPATHIC .......................................... Pharmacopeia .................................................6802 (5) ............................................................................42 HYPODERMIC SYRINGES (Inc ESAP) .... Sale Of............................................................Department Of Health ......................................................73 HYPODERMIC NEEDLES (ESAP) ............ Sale Of............................................................Department Of Health ......................................................74 ILLEGAL PRACTICE .................................. ........................................................................6515 and 6516 ..................................................................91 IMPRINTING................................................ Tablets/Capsules ............................................6811-a.1............................................................................50 INJUNCTION................................................ Proceedings ....................................................6824 ..................................................................................56 INSPECTIONS.............................................. Factory............................................................6823 ..................................................................................56 INSPECTIONS.............................................. Conduct ..........................................................6822 ..................................................................................56 INSTITUTIONAL......................................... Research .........................................................6807 (1) (d).......................................................................44 INTERN......................................................... Signatures.......................................................29.7 (a) (3)......................................................................100 INTERN PERMIT ......................................... Limited Permit ...............................................6806 ..................................................................................44 INTERNS, PHARMACY.............................. Foreign ...........................................................63.2 (b) .............................................................................60 INTERNS, PHARMACY.............................. Experience......................................................63.2 ...................................................................................59 LABEL........................................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (10) ..........................................................................42 LABEL........................................................... Mutilation.......................................................6811 (17) ..........................................................................49 LABEL........................................................... Omitted or Incorrect.......................................6816 ..................................................................................53 LABEL........................................................... Manufacturer/Distributor Identification ........29.7 (a) (6)......................................................................101 LABEL........................................................... Manufacturer Identification ...........................6816-a.1.(c) .....................................................................54 LABEL........................................................... Prescription ....................................................6810 ..................................................................................47 LABEL........................................................... Generic Drugs ................................................29.7 (a) (6)......................................................................101 LABELING ................................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (12) ..........................................................................42 LABELS, PRESCRIPTION .......................... Legible............................................................29.7 (a) (1)......................................................................100 LAWS ............................................................ General Information Sources ......................... ..........................................................................................12 LICENSE ....................................................... Display ...........................................................6811 (4) ............................................................................49 LICENSE ....................................................... Surrender ........................................................17.6 ...................................................................................93 LICENSURE ................................................. Endorsement (Reciprocity) ............................63.5 ...................................................................................60 LICENSURE ................................................. Requirements .................................................6805 ..................................................................................43 LICENSURE ................................................. Duration and Registration of..........................6502 ..................................................................................80 LICENSURE ................................................. Foreign Educated ...........................................63.1 ...................................................................................59 LIMITED PHARMACY ............................... ........................................................................6808.2.g ............................................................................45 LIST, RETAIL DRUG PRICE...................... ........................................................................6826(1) .............................................................................57 LIST, RETAIL DRUG PRICE...................... ........................................................................63.6(b)(9)..........................................................................65 LOG, PRESCRIPTION ................................. Manual System...............................................29.7 (a) (8)......................................................................101 LOG, PRESCRIPTION ................................. Daily Numbering ...........................................29.7 (a) (7)......................................................................101 LOG, PRESCRIPTION ................................. Computer........................................................29.7 (a) (8)......................................................................101 M/W REGISTRATION................................. Federal Guidelines .........................................21 CFR .............................................................................70 M/W REGISTRATION................................. General ...........................................................6808 (4) ............................................................................46 MANUFACTURER ...................................... General ...........................................................63.6 (c)..............................................................................65 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Out of State ....................................................6808-b...............................................................................46 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................18 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Tablet Identification.......................................6811-a (1) ........................................................................50 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Registration ....................................................6808 ..................................................................................45 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Publishing.......................................................6811-a (4) .........................................................................50 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Supervisor Requirements...............................6811 (25) ..........................................................................50 110 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE MANUFACTURER ...................................... Inspection .......................................................6808 (5) ............................................................................46 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (21) ..........................................................................43 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Label Manufacturer........................................6811 (25) ..........................................................................50 MANUFACTURER ...................................... Prescription Label ..........................................6816-a (1) (c)....................................................................54 MANUFACTURER/DISTRIBUTOR LABEL - Listed On Prescription .............................29.7 (a) (6)......................................................................10 1 MEDICAL GASES ....................................... Repackager.....................................................63.6 (c)..............................................................................65 MERCURY, SALE OF ................................ ........................................................................6811 (21) ..........................................................................49 MISBRANDING ........................................... Adulterating ...................................................6815 (2) ............................................................................52 MISBRANDING ........................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (13) ..........................................................................42 MISDEMEANORS ....................................... Listed..............................................................6811 (1-25).......................................................................49 MORAL CHARACTER ............................... Determination.................................................28.1 ...................................................................................96 MOVING ....................................................... Notification ....................................................63.6 (a) (1)........................................................................60 MOVING ....................................................... Pharmacy........................................................63.6 (a) (1)........................................................................60 MOVING ....................................................... Pharmacy........................................................6808 (2) (d).......................................................................45 NAME USE ................................................... Confidentiality ...............................................29.1(b) (8).........................................................................98 NAME BADGE............................................. Pharmacist ......................................................6808-a...............................................................................46 NAME BADGE............................................. Identification ..................................................29.2(a)(9)..........................................................................99 NDC NUMBER............................................. ........................................................................6811-a...............................................................................50 NEEDLES...................................................... Hypodermic....................................................Part 80...............................................................................73 NEW DRUG .................................................. ........................................................................6817 ..................................................................................54 NEW DRUG .................................................. Defined...........................................................6802 (15) ..........................................................................43 NON RESIDENT .......................................... Pharmacy Registration ...................................6808.b ...............................................................................46 NON RESIDENT .......................................... Establishment Registration ............................6808.b ...............................................................................46 NON RESIDENT .......................................... Registration Questions and Answers ............. ..........................................................................................18 NUCLEAR PHARMACY............................. See Radioactive..............................................63.6 (b) (6)........................................................................62 OFFICERS..................................................... Change Of ......................................................63.6 (a) (3)........................................................................60 ONE RX PER BLANK ................................. Includes OTC .................................................6810 (7) ............................................................................48 OPD ............................................................... Address/Phone ............................................... ..........................................................................................6 ORAL PRESCRIPTION ............................... Requirements .................................................6810 (4) ............................................................................47 ORAL PRESCRIPTION ............................... ........................................................................29.7 (a) (2)......................................................................100 OUTDATED DRUGS................................... List Mo/Yr Only ............................................29.7 (a) (17) (i) ...............................................................102 PATIENT COUNSELING ............................ Requirements .................................................63.6(b)(8)..........................................................................63 PATIENT COUNSELING ............................ Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................14 PATIENT PROFILE ..................................... Mandatory ......................................................63.6 (b) (7) .......................................................................63 PHARMACIST.............................................. Change Name/Address ..................................59.8 (e)............................................................................105 PHARMACIST.............................................. Title ................................................................6803 ..................................................................................43 PHARMACOPEIA........................................ Defined...........................................................6802 (4) ............................................................................42 PHARMACY................................................. Refrigeration ..................................................63.6 (b) (3)........................................................................62 PHARMACY................................................. Limited Registration ......................................6808 (2) (g).......................................................................45 PHARMACY................................................. Size.................................................................63.6 (b) (2)........................................................................62 PHARMACY DEPARTMENT .................... Department Sign ............................................63.6 (b) (5)........................................................................62 PHARMACY DEPARTMENT .................... Department Only............................................6808 (2) (f) .......................................................................45 PHARMACY................................................. Inspection .......................................................6808 (5) ............................................................................46 PHARMACY................................................. Within Non-Registered Area .........................63.6 (b) (5)........................................................................62 PHARMACY................................................. Reference Required........................................63.6 (b) (4)........................................................................62 PHARMACY................................................. Conduct ..........................................................6808 (2) (e).......................................................................45 PHARMACY................................................. Discontinuation ..............................................6812 (1) ............................................................................51 PHARMACY................................................. Equipment ......................................................63.6 (b) (1)........................................................................62 PHARMACY................................................. Out-of-State....................................................6808-b...............................................................................46 PHARMACY................................................. Out-of-State, Questions and Answers ........... ..........................................................................................18 PHARMACY PRACTICE ............................ Defined...........................................................6801 ..................................................................................42 111 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE PHARMACY TECHNICIAN ....................... Unlicensed Persons (Duties)..........................29.7 (a) (21)....................................................................102 POISON ......................................................... Defined...........................................................6802 (9) ............................................................................42 POISON ......................................................... Register ..........................................................6821 (4) ............................................................................56 POISON ......................................................... Schedule .........................................................6821 ..................................................................................55 POSTING....................................................... Required Sign.................................................6826.b ...............................................................................57 POSTING PRICES........................................ Changes..........................................................6826.1 ...............................................................................57 POSTING PRICES........................................ Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................17 PRECEPTOR................................................. Requirements .................................................63.2 (3 & 4) ......................................................................60 PRESCRIBER DISPENSING....................... Restrictions.....................................................6807 (2) ............................................................................44 PRESCRIBER DISPENSING....................... Requirements .................................................6807 (1) ............................................................................44 PRESCRIBER NAME .................................. Imprinting/Stamped .......................................6810 (8) ............................................................................48 PRESCRIBER SIGNATURE ....................... Blanks.............................................................6810 (8) ............................................................................48 PRESCRIPTION ........................................... Retrieval .........................................................29.7 (a) (8) ......................................................................101 PRESCRIPTION ........................................... Forms..............................................................6810 (6) (a).......................................................................48 PRESCRIPTION ........................................... Blanks/Prescribers..........................................6810 (8) ............................................................................48 PRESCRIPTION LOG .................................. Daily Record ..................................................29.7 (a) (8)......................................................................101 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Labeling .........................................................6810 ..................................................................................47 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Dispensing......................................................6810 ..................................................................................47 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Oral.................................................................29.7 (a) (2)......................................................................100 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... What Must Appear.........................................29.7 (a) (1)......................................................................100 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Copies.............................................................6810 (3) ............................................................................47 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... DAW .............................................................. 6810 (6) ............................................................................48 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Unprofessional Conduct ................................29.7 .................................................................................100 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Refills .............................................................29.7 (a) (4)......................................................................100 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Out-of-State....................................................6816 (2) ............................................................................53 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Refills .............................................................6810 (2) ............................................................................47 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Signature ........................................................29.7 (8) (iv) ....................................................................10 1 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Substitution ....................................................6810 (6) ............................................................................48 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Signing ...........................................................6810 (8) ............................................................................48 PRESCRIPTIONS ......................................... Records...........................................................6810 (5) ............................................................................48 PRICE LIST................................................... Failure To Post ...............................................6811 (22) ..........................................................................49 PRICE LIST (RETAIL)................................. ........................................................................6826 ..................................................................................57 PRICE LIST (RETAIL)................................. ........................................................................63.6(9) ..............................................................................65 PRICE LIST................................................... Changes..........................................................6811 (23) ..........................................................................49 PRICE LIST................................................... Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................17 PRICES.......................................................... Unsubstantiated..............................................29.1 (b) (12) (e) ................................................................98 PRICES.......................................................... Fees/Available................................................29.7 (a) (13) ....................................................................101 PROBATION ................................................ Violation.........................................................29.1 (14) ...........................................................................98 PROBATION ................................................ Violation.........................................................17.7 ...................................................................................94 PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT .............. ........................................................................6509 ..................................................................................84 PROFESSIONS ............................................. Committee On ...............................................24.2 ...................................................................................95 PROFILES, PATIENT .................................. Records, General............................................29.2 (a) (3)........................................................................99 PROSECUTION............................................ Discipline Charges .........................................17.3 ...................................................................................92 PROSECUTION............................................ Illegal Practice................................................6516 ..................................................................................91 PUBLISHING................................................ Manufacturer..................................................6811-a...............................................................................50 RADIOACTIVE DRUGS ............................. Equipment ......................................................63.6 (b) (6)........................................................................62 RADIOACTIVE DRUGS ............................. Dispensing......................................................63.6 (b) (6)........................................................................62 RECIPROCITY ............................................. Endorsements .................................................63.5 ...................................................................................60 RECORDS ..................................................... Drug Shipments .............................................6814 ..................................................................................51 RECORDS ..................................................... Prescriptions/Maintaining..............................6810 (5) ............................................................................48 RECORDS ..................................................... Investigational................................................6817 (4) (c).......................................................................54 112 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE RECORDS ..................................................... Copied/Shipment............................................6814 ..................................................................................51 RECORDS ..................................................... Discontinued ..................................................6812 (1) ............................................................................51 RECORDS ..................................................... Copying ..........................................................6811 (24) ..........................................................................50 REFILL/ P.R.N.............................................. Prescriptions...................................................29.7 (a) (4)......................................................................100 REFILLS........................................................ Directions .......................................................6810 (2) ............................................................................47 REFILLS........................................................ Oral Orders.....................................................6810 (4,5) .........................................................................47 REFILLS........................................................ Authorization .................................................6810 (4) ............................................................................47 REFILLS........................................................ Copies.............................................................6810(4) .............................................................................47 REFILLS........................................................ Prescriptions...................................................6810 (2,4,5) ......................................................................47 REFILLS........................................................ Prescriptions...................................................29.7 (a) (4)......................................................................100 REFILLS........................................................ Signing ...........................................................29.7 (a) (4)......................................................................100 REFILLS........................................................ Transfers.........................................................63.6 (a) (8)........................................................................61 RETAIL DRUG PRICE LIST....................... ........................................................................63.6(9) ..............................................................................65 REFERENCES REQUIRED......................... Pharmacy........................................................63.6 (b) (4)........................................................................62 REFRIGERATOR ......................................... Pharmacy........................................................63.6 (b) (3)........................................................................62 REFRIGERATOR ......................................... Temperatures..................................................63.6 (b) (3)........................................................................62 REGISTRATION .......................................... Renewals (Establishments) ............................6808 (2) (b).......................................................................45 REGISTRATION .......................................... Fees ................................................................6808 (2) (b).......................................................................45 REGISTRATION .......................................... Establishments ...............................................6808 (1) ............................................................................45 REGISTRATION .......................................... Display ...........................................................59.8 (c)............................................................................105 REGISTRATION .......................................... Initial ..............................................................59.7 .................................................................................105 REGISTRATION .......................................... Lapsed ............................................................59.8 (b) ..........................................................................105 REGISTRATION .......................................... Display ...........................................................6808 (2) (c).......................................................................45 REGISTRATION .......................................... Display ...........................................................59.8 (c)............................................................................105 REGISTRATION .......................................... Certificates .....................................................59.8 (c)............................................................................105 REGISTRATION .......................................... Out-of-State....................................................6808-b...............................................................................46 REGISTRATION .......................................... Out-of-State Questions and Answers ............ ..........................................................................................18 RENEWALS.................................................. Registration ....................................................6808 (2) (b).......................................................................45 REPACKAGING........................................... Time/Expiration Date.....................................29.7 (a) (15)....................................................................102 REPACKAGING........................................... Conditions ......................................................29.7 (a) (15)....................................................................10 2 REPACKAGING........................................... Other Locations/Exceptions...........................6819 ..................................................................................55 REPACKERS ................................................ General ...........................................................63.6 (c)..............................................................................65 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS................. All Establishments .........................................Guidelines.........................................................................10 REQUIREMENTS-PHARMACIST ............. Educational.....................................................59.2 .................................................................................103 RESEARCH .................................................. Institutional ....................................................6807 (d) ............................................................................44 RESTRAINT OF UNLAWFUL ACTS ........ ........................................................................6515 ..................................................................................91 RETURNED DRUGS ................................... Return/Stock...................................................29.7 (a) (14)....................................................................102 REVEALING INFORMATION ................... About Patients ................................................29.1 (8) .............................................................................98 REVOCATION ............................................. Establishment .................................................6808 (6) ............................................................................46 REVOCATION ............................................. Penalties .........................................................17.9 ...................................................................................94 SALE OF DRUGS......................................... Auction...........................................................6808 (7) ............................................................................46 SAMPLES ..................................................... Door-To-Door ................................................6811-b...............................................................................50 SCOPE OF PRACTICE ................................ ........................................................................29.1 (9) .............................................................................98 SECRET FORMULA.................................... Prescriptions...................................................6811 (7) ............................................................................49 SERVICE FEES ............................................ ........................................................................59.9 ................................................................................ 106 SHARED SPACE.......................................... By Corporations .............................................63.6 (c) (4)........................................................................65 SEIZURE ....................................................... ........................................................................6813 ..................................................................................51 SIGNATURE................................................. Prescriptions...................................................29.7 (a) (8)......................................................................10 1 SIGNS ............................................................ Pharmacy Department....................................63.6 (b) (5)........................................................................62 SIGNS ............................................................ Pharmacy Department....................................6808 (2) (f) .......................................................................45 SIGNS ............................................................ Exterior...........................................................63.6 (a) (6)........................................................................61 113 INDEX TOPIC 1 TOPIC 2 REFERENCE PAGE SQUARE FOOTAGE.................................... Pharmacy........................................................63.6 (b) (2)........................................................................62 STOCKHOLDERS........................................ Change Of ......................................................63.6 (a) (3)........................................................................60 SUBSTITUTION........................................... Prescription Format........................................6810 (6) ............................................................................48 SUBSTITUTION........................................... Unauthorized..................................................29.7 (a) (5)......................................................................100 SUBSTITUTION........................................... Required .........................................................6816 (a).............................................................................53 SUBSTITUTION........................................... “DAW” Box...................................................6810 (6) ............................................................................48 SUBSTITUTION........................................... Generic Not Available ...................................6810 (6) ............................................................................48 SUBSTITUTION........................................... On Oral Prescription ......................................6816-a (1) (a)....................................................................54 SUBSTITUTION........................................... Labeling .........................................................6816 ..................................................................................53 SUPERVISING PHARMACIST .................. Display of Registration ..................................6808 (2) (c).......................................................................45 SUPERVISING PHARMACIST .................. Change Of ......................................................6808 (2) (c).......................................................................45 SUPERVISING PHARMACIST .................. General Information.......................................29.7 (a) (10)....................................................................101 SUPERVISOR............................................... Medical Gases ................................................63.6 (c) (2)........................................................................65 SUPERVISORS............................................. Minimum Hours Required .............................29.7 (a) (10)....................................................................101 SURRENDER OF LICENSE........................ ........................................................................17.6 ...................................................................................93 SUSPENSIONS............................................. Summary ........................................................17.9 ...................................................................................94 SUSPENSIONS............................................. ........................................................................17.9 ...................................................................................94 SYRINGES.................................................... Hypodermic....................................................Part 80...............................................................................73 TRADE SECRET .......................................... ........................................................................6811 (16) ..........................................................................49 TRANFER OF DRUGS ................................ Emergency .....................................................6810 (1) ............................................................................47 UNIT DOSE PACKAGING.......................... Requirements .................................................29.7 (a) (15)................................................................... 102 UNLICENSED ASSISTANTS ..................... Duties Allowed ..............................................29.7 (a) (21)....................................................................102 UNLICENSED ASSISTANTS ..................... Ratio ...............................................................29.7 (a) (21) (ii) (a) ....................................................... 103 UNLICENSED ASSISTANTS ..................... ........................................................................ 6807 (a).............................................................................44 UNLICENSED PERSONNEL...................... Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................16 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ Advertising.....................................................29.1 (b) (12) ..................................................................... 98 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ All Professions ...............................................29.1 ...................................................................................97 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ Health Professions .........................................29.2 ...................................................................................98 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ Substitution ....................................................29.7 (a) (5 & 6)...............................................................100 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ Pharmacy........................................................29.7 ................................................................................100 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ Oral Prescriptions...........................................29.7 (a) (2)......................................................................100 UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT................ Refills .............................................................29.7 (a) (3 & 4)...............................................................100 VIOLATIONS ............................................... Proof Required ...............................................6825 (1) ............................................................................56 VIOLATIONS ............................................... Advertisement ................................................6825 (3) ............................................................................57 VIOLATIONS ............................................... Adulterated.....................................................6825 ..................................................................................56 WAIVERS ..................................................... Commissioner’s Authority.............................63.6 (d) .............................................................................65 WHOLESALER ............................................ Supervisor ......................................................63.6 (c) (2)........................................................................65 WHOLESALER ............................................ Registration ....................................................6808 ..................................................................................45 WHOLESALER ............................................ General ...........................................................63.6 (c)..............................................................................65 WHOLESALER ............................................ Inspection .......................................................6808 (5) ............................................................................46 WHOLESALER ............................................ Defined...........................................................6802 ..................................................................................42 WHOLESALER REQUIREMENTS ............ Federal/State...................................................CFR 21 SEC 205 ..............................................................70 WHOLESALER – OUT OF STATE ............ ........................................................................6808-b...............................................................................46 WHOLESALER – OUT OF STATE ............ Questions and Answers.................................. ..........................................................................................18 WHOLESALERS .......................................... General Information.......................................63.6 (c)..............................................................................65 114 FORM AD/NAME The University of the State of New York THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT Office of the Professions Division of Professional Licensing Services www.op.nysed.gov OFFICE USE ADDRESS/NAME CHANGE FORM INSTRUCTIONS Use this form to report a change in your address and/or name. Please read these instructions carefully and be sure you complete the appropriate sections of this form. Please print clearly in ink. • For address changes only: Complete Sections I, II, and IV. For address changes only, you may fax this form to the Records and Archives Unit at 518-486-3617 or provide the required information by E-mail: oparchiv@mail.nysed.gov. Your records will be updated. Currently registered licensed professionals will be sent a new registration certificate. For name changes only: Complete Sections I, III, IV and V. Name changes require an original notarized signature in your new name and cannot be accepted prior to your official change of name. Sign the Section IV affidavit and have your signature notarized by a notary public. Currently registered licensed professionals will be sent a new registration certificate. For address and name changes: Complete all sections. • • Licensed professionals can check the Office of the Professions' Web site at www.op.nysed.gov to verify your name, city, state, registration expiration date, and license number on record. NOTE: Important information and registration renewals will be sent to the address on file for you. You must notify the Department in writing within 30 days if your address or name changes. Section I: Your General Information 1. 2. Name (currently on record): ______________________________________________________________________________________ Social Security Number: Telephone: Home: _______ - _______ - _______________ E-mail: __________________________________________ 3. 4. 5. Are you reporting an address and/or name change? Effective date of change: _______ / _______ / _______ Licensure status in New York State: I am an applicant for licensure in New York State for the licensed profession(s) of: ________________________________________ I am currently licensed in New York State in the profession(s) of: (see list of professions on page 2) (see list of professions on page 2) Birth Date: Month Day Year Work: _______ - _______ - _______________ Fax: _______ - _______ - _______________ address change name change both (Note: Changes cannot be accepted until after the effective date.) _________________________________________________ New York State license number: _________________________________________________ New York State license number: _________________________________________________ New York State license number: _________________________________________________ New York State license number: Section II: Address Change (please print) Information Currently On Record Apt./Bldg. ______________________________________ Street _________________________________________ City ___________________________________________ State __________________________________________ Zip Code New Information Apt./Bldg. ______________________________________ Street _________________________________________ City ___________________________________________ State __________________________________________ Zip Code - Province or Country (if not U.S.) _______________________________________________ Province or Country (if not U.S.) _______________________________________________ Address/Name Change Form, Page 1 of 2, (Rev. 4/07) Section III: Name Change (please print) If you are reporting a name change, please sign using your NEW name in Section lV. Your new signature must be notarized for any name changes. If you are currently registered you will receive a new registration certificate. Information Currently On Record Last Name ______________________________________ First Name _____________________________________ Middle or Initial __________________________________ New Information Last Name ______________________________________ First Name _____________________________________ Middle or Initial __________________________________ Check here if you wish to have your existing license parchment replaced with one in your NEW name. Enclose your original parchment and a $10 check or money order made payable to the New York State Education Department with your request. You will be sent a new parchment. Section IV: Affidavit I declare and affirm that the statements above are true, complete, and correct. I understand that any false or misleading information in, or in connection with, my application or this notification may be cause for denial or loss of licensure and may result in criminal prosecution. _____________________________________________________________________________ Signature Section V: For Name Changes Only: Notary Certification And Identification State of __________________________________________________ County of __________________________________________ On the _______________ day of _________________________ in the year _____________ before me, the undersigned, personally appeared __________________________, personally known to me or proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the individual whose name is subscribed to this application and acknowledged to me that he/she executed the application and swore that the statements made by him/her in the application and all supporting materials are true, complete, and correct. Notary Public signature _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Notary ID number ________________________________ _________________________________ Date Notary Stamp Expiration date _________ / _________ / _________ Month Day Year Professional Titles Licensed Under Education Law (See item #5 on page 1 of the form.) Acupuncturist Architect Athletic Trainer Audiologist Certified Clinical Laboratory Technician Certified Dental Assistant Certified Public Accountant Certified Shorthand Reporter Chiropractor Clinical Laboratory Technologist Creative Arts Therapist Cytotechnologist Dental Hygienist Dentist Dietitian/Nutritionist Interior Designer New Applicants mail to Licensees mail to Landscape Architect Land Surveyor Licensed Clinical Social Worker Licensed Master Social Worker Licensed Practical Nurse Marriage and Family Therapist Massage Therapist Medical Physicist Mental Health Counselor Midwife Nurse Practitioner Occupational Therapist Occupational Therapy Assistant Ophthalmic Dispenser Optometrist Pharmacist Physical Therapist Physical Therapist Assistant Physician Podiatrist Professional Engineer Psychoanalyst Psychologist Public Accountant Registered Physician Assistant Registered Professional Nurse Registered Specialist Assistant Respiratory Therapist Respiratory Therapy Technician Speech-Language Pathologist Veterinarian Veterinary Technician New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Division of Professional Licensing Services, (insert name of profession from above list) Unit, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234-1000. New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Division of Professional Licensing Services, Records and Archives Unit, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234-1000. Address/Name Change Form, Page 2 of 2, (Rev. 4/07) THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT Office of the Professions Division of Professional Licensing Services 89 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12234-1000 GP 20 January 2004 From ruben@mrbrklyn.com Mon Jan 11 13:55:30 2010 X-UIDL: %`\"!ji?"!VJY"!RUl!! Return-Path: X-Original-To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Delivered-To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Received: by www2.mrbrklyn.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 72EE456EAC; Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:55:30 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:55:30 -0500 From: Ruben Safir To: Eduard SHLEYGER Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: My email. Message-ID: <20100111185530.GA14642@www2.mrbrklyn.com> References: <223476.12632.qm@web30006.mail.mud.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <223476.12632.qm@web30006.mail.mud.yahoo.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Status: RO Content-Length: 5858 Lines: 114 On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 10:29:11AM -0800, Eduard SHLEYGER wrote: > > Eduard Shleyger > Cell: 917.309.4569 N.Y. > Cell: 926.931.0000 Moscow > > > Such common file shall contain complete records of each prescription and refill dispensed. (b) Pharmacies. (1) To secure and retain registration, a pharmacy shall be equipped with at least the following utensils: (i) weighing device sensitive to 6 mg; (ii) metric weights, if needed for the operation of the device in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph; (iii) devices capable of measuring volumes from 0.1 ml to 500 ml; and (iv) a mortar and pestle. (2) The registered area shall measure not less than 300 square feet and shall include a manufacturing, compounding and dispensing area of not less than 100 square feet. The pharmacy shall be equipped with storage facilities providing for the safe storage of drugs; with heating and ventilation adequate to safeguard the purity and potency of drugs; with adequate lighting; and with hot and cold running water in the compounding and dispensing area; provided, however, that a pharmacy which was registered initially prior to the effective date of this paragraph on the basis of meeting requirements less than those specified in this paragraph shall not be required to meet the requirements of this paragraph for the continuance of registration to the same registrant. (3) The registered area shall include a refrigerator, sufficient in capacity to serve the needs of the pharmacy, that is equipped with a thermometer and providing at all times a storage temperature of 2 degrees to 8 degrees Centigrade (36 degrees to 46 degrees Fahrenheit). The use of such refrigerator shall be limited to the storage of drugs. (4) The pharmacy shall possess copies of laws, rules and regulations governing the practice of pharmacy in New York, and other reference resources as may be necessary to carry on the practice of pharmacy. (5) A pharmacy operated as a department of a general merchandising establishment shall be enclosed permanently by a partition at least nine feet six inches in height, except where the ceiling is less than nine feet six inches in height in which case the partition shall be from floor to ceiling. Identification of such department by use of words "drugs," "medicines," "drug store" or "pharmacy" or similar terms shall be restricted to the area registered by the department, except that nothing in this restriction shall prevent the placement on the exterior of such establishment of signs indicating the existence of a pharmacy therein. Such exterior signs may consist of the name of the registrant and/or the word pharmacy; provided, however, that when the word pharmacy is used, it may not be used in juxtaposition to a nonregistered name. When the pharmacy is not open during all the hours maintained by the general merchandising establishment, an exterior sign shall indicate clearly when the pharmacy is open and when it is closed. (6) A pharmacy in which radioactive drugs are dispensed shall meet all requirements established by 10 NYCRR Part 16 for medical and academic facilities or by 12 NYCRR Part 38 for commercial facilities as evidenced by receipt by the pharmacy of an appropriate license issued by the New York State Department of Health or the New York State Department of Labor, and the additional requirements which follow. (i) There shall be present at all hours when the pharmacy is open at least one pharmacist who: (a) meets the minimal standards of training and experience required by 10 NYCRR Part 16 or by 12 NYCRR Part 38 for the use of radioactive materials; and (b) has submitted to the State Board of Pharmacy evidence of either of the following: (1) certification as a Nuclear Pharmacist by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties of the American Pharmaceutical Association; or (2) completion of a minimum of 200 contact hours of didactic instruction in nuclear pharmacy in an accredited school or college of pharmacy, and a minimum of 500 hours of clinical nuclear pharmacy training under the supervision of a Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties certified nuclear pharmacist in a pharmacy providing nuclear pharmacy services, in a certified nuclear pharmacy residency program or in a nuclear pharmacy training program in an accredited school or college of pharmacy or the equivalent thereof as determined by the department. (ii) In addition to the items and articles of equipment required by this subdivision, the pharmacy shall be equipped with at least the following: (a) laminar flow hood; (b) dose calibrator; (c) exhaust hood and filter system; (d) apparatus; chromatography (e) apparatus or materials for the determination of pH; (f) single-channel and/or multichannel scintillation detection system; and (g) microscope. (iii) A pharmacy which dispenses both radioactive drugs and nonradioactive drugs shall maintain a separate area for the storage and dispensing of radioactive drugs, which area shall be secured personnel. from unauthorized -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one." Copyright for the Digital Millennium Irina Usherenko Assistant Director of Pharmacy Long Island College Hospital October 9Th, 2007 Subject: Pharmacy Technician Issues Within an evaluation period of about 2 months, and with particular focus on activities over the last 2 weeks, creeping problems with the non-professional staff have thwarted efforts to provide optimal patient care within the hospital. Outlined within this memo is not just specific examples of failings of the technician staff and messengers to cover assignments adequately, but also addresses an underlining motivational problem within the staff which need to be addressed in order to prevent the Pharmacy from having to overcome increasing numbers of events which are truly symptoms of the same motivational problems. The non-professional staff, from top to bottom, fails to accept or understand the supervisory role of the pharmacist and their submissive organizational position. Likewise, this impression on the part of the non-professional staff is reinforced by a refusal of some of our pharmacist to adequately use their authority or to supervise activities in the pharmacy. This later issue will be discussed at a later time. Here I'd like to focus on the first problem: IE non-professional staff insubordination. Previously I've documented for the Pharmacy Management staff specific failures including failures in the stocking of the Emergency Departments Medication Rooms and the IV antibiotics. I've needed to stock the ER med rooms myself. In addition, I discussed with Mike the particularly upsetting incident involving Diva in the morning when she clocked in, spent a half hour in the locker room while the phones were ringing, and then when I tracked her down and asked her if she clocked in yet (it was 8:30 in the morning) she said, "Yes she did and what's it my business." Since then I've had a number of other incidents including Amy questioning my enforcement of pharmacy policy with regard to the ER, repeated loading of software on computers used by technicians, the refusal to go to the ER by Barry to check the status of tetanus toxoid with Diphtheria sotres stating that it was the day shifts job, a clearly stated reluctance by Barry to help fill a few hours of emergency drugs for the 9th floor when they locked themselves out of the medication rooms, refusal of Jackie and Amy at different times this week to prepack IV antibiotics on my direction in the final hours of their shift causing me to have to make them in the middle of the night, and finally, the battle to get the overnight technicians to make the delivery schedule as expressed by Suzanne, especially when I have 2 techs on duty. Overall, the foot dragging is exasperating, the refusals to take instruction simply unacceptable, the inappropriate comments frustrating, and particularly Jackie is spending a lot time while on the clock having secret conversations within the Pharmacy with Barry, and with Amy and others gossiping over who knows what, but evidently focused on some kind of lack of job satisfaction. Often Barry and Jackie can talk for a half hour before he actually works, and Jackie never ever does any significant work in the final hour plus of her shift. Coupled with this, specifically, there is an impression among the non-professional staff that that they have locked in job descriptions and a set limited number of tasks, beyond which they will not take instruction or do extra duty. This Pharmacy has more than enough work to be done, but the end of shifts finds technicians watching movies on the computers, gossiping as a group, and leaving important tasks which are not part of their specific routines to be left undone. On the overnight shift, for example, Barry is almost solely focused on the cart fill and a regimented amount of bulk packing of IV's and crash cart filling (along with the narcotic inventory). And while filling that cart is important, I need him to proactively respond to a whole plethora of other critically important activities. Most importantly the technicians must be an extension of my eyes, ears and arms in the pharmacy and on the floors. If it is deemed appropriate, I need the Pharmacy Management to help change the expectations of the non-professional staff and to forcefully make clear the expected role of such staff. Additionally, on the overnight we are obligated, to my understanding, to make deliveries overnight every 2 hours. That would be a schedule of 12AM, 2AM, 4AM, and 6AM. The technicians, especially when there are two technicians on duty, must make a midnight and 4AM delivery, in addition to making a 2AM delivery those times when the hospital transport is unable to comply reasonably to the schedule. I need a memo to this affect from the directors office or from one of the assistant directors. Secondly, a memo is needed addressing the general authority of the professional staff to direct non-professional staff as needed. Such a memo should state something to the affect of, "State Law and hospital policy gives a fiduciary responsibility to professional pharmacists in the running of the hospital pharmacy. Non-professional staff, Pharmacy Technicians, Messengers and others, while working on the pharmacy floor, are expected to consider requests and instructions from any Pharmacist as supervisory instruction as it would if it came from the Pharmacy Managements office. Technicians, in addition to their unit assignments and work schedules, are expected to support the Pharmacists in their professional duties in a fully cooperative manner. In addition, the comings and goings of non-professional staff, when going on breaks, lunch, or heading to floors, should be done with the coordination of the Pharmacists working on the floor, and not independent of them. Any conflict resulting from this policy should be later addressed to management after complying with any reasonable directive, reasonable being defined as any order which is issued within the scope of state law, patient safety and hospital policy." Thank You for your attention to this matter Ruben Safir RPh LICH Staff Pharmacist Brooklyn, USA Chumeung County 1-607-737-2949 Fax 607-737-2931 Decker 607-737-2860 Deckers Clerk 607-737-2949 203 Williams Street 14902 Schuyler Sheriff 106 10th Street Watkin's Glen, NY 14891 607-535-8227 The Case For Supporting SOPA And PROTECT IP Eric Savitz Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff + Comment now Guest post written by Steve Tepp Steve Tepp is the chief intellectual property counsel for the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Steve Tepp: Protect our IP. Last month, 150 online illegal enterprises were shut down by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of its ongoing “Operation in Our Sites” campaign against theft of intellectual property. While the operators of these websites may be saying “Bah Humbug!,” consumers and businesses alike are all the better for it, especially during this season of giving (and therefore, shopping). Though the narrative around the issue of rogue sites and the pending legislation in the House and Senate to rid the U.S. market of these has somehow zeroed in on the content industry, a quick glance at the domain names seized in this latest haul tells quite a compelling – and contrary – story. Of the 150 websites in question, less than five infringed on the IP belonging to the entertainment industry. The vast majority of these rogue sites sold consumer goods that you or I could encounter any given day with any given click of the mouse. For instance, many of these sites sold counterfeit sports clothing, designer shoes and handbags and even pirated exercise programs. Since the program’s inception in June 2010, “Operation in Our Sites” has removed well over 300 of the worst-of-the-worst rogue sites from the e-marketplace. These domain seizures are a great boost to businesses because they are able to protect their investments that they put into their creative and innovative products; a great boost to workers in these innovative industries who will continue to be employed because these innovations are adequately protected; and a great boost to consumer confidence in shopping online, knowing they have to worry a little less about malicious computer viruses or health and safety risks associated with these deceitful rogue products. It is worth noting that since the program began a year and a half ago, the Internet hasn’t broken, Web entrepreneurship is humming along, and free speech is alive and well in America. All of which proves what should be obvious to all; the Internet is a better place when criminals can’t abuse it to steal jobs and harm consumers. But Operation in Our Sites cannot solve the entire problem of online IP theft. While we have the ability to enforce our existing IP laws against rogue sites operating within our borders, our enforcement agencies currently lack the legal tools to enforce these very same laws on rogue sites operating outside of the U.S. And indeed, many of these rogue sites are entirely foreign. This is precisely the loophole that PROTECT IP and SOPA are intended to plug: apply existing laws to the operators of foreign rogue websites that blatantly and intentionally skirt these laws for their own profit and give our courts and enforcement agencies a tool to cut these sites off from the U.S. market. We would not tolerate for a moment a store that was dedicated to selling illegal and stolen products, so why would we ever give criminals a free pass to deceive American consumers and harm our most innovative and productive industries in the Internet marketplace? Unsurprisingly, there is a huge and diverse backing for rogue sites legislation. Businesses, labor organizations, third parties, Constitutional experts, attorneys general, Republicans, Democrats, consumer advocates, and even consumers themselves have all said enough with this pilfering of American (intellectual) property. As the legislative process moves forward, we look forward to legitimate concerns being addressed with the goal of an effective, commercially reasonable law. But the one thing that ought to be rejected out of hand is doing nothing to stop this ongoing flood of theft. catchxxii 2 hours ago You fail to mention that SOPA / Protect ip are censoring the free speech of legitimate non-infringing websites with no due process, or the fact that both SOPA / Protect IP are failures when it comes to anyone outside of the entertainment industry supporting the bills. CreativeAmerica. This is the astroturfing operation set up by the major Hollywood studios, pretending to be “grassroots.” Of course, as noted, they can’t seem to find very many supporters at all. In the entire month of November, when there was a ton of news about these issues, it appears that a grand total of 161 new people signed up for its letter-to-Congress offering. In contrast to that, folks protesting SOPA were able to get over a million emails sent to Congress and over 87,000 phone calls in just one day. Protect ip and SOPA Harm American innovation, censor free speech online of legitimate non-infringing websites, and will cost Americans their jobs. The entertainment industry needs to ADAPT, Or die. So others can fill the gap. Reply catchxxii catchxxii 1 hour ago Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details… from the copyright-as-censorship dept Imagine if the US government, with no notice or warning, raided a small but popular magazine’s offices over a Thanksgiving weekend, seized the company’s printing presses, and told the world that the magazine was a criminal enterprise with a giant banner on their building. Then imagine that it never arrested anyone, never let a trial happen, and filed everything about the case under seal, not even letting the magazine’s lawyers talk to the judge presiding over the case. And it continued to deny any due process at all for over a year, before finally just handing everything back to the magazine and pretending nothing happened. I expect most people would be outraged. I expect that nearly all of you would say that’s a classic case of prior restraint, a massive First Amendment violation, and exactly the kind of thing that does not, or should not, happen in the United States. But, in a story that’s been in the making for over a year, and which we’re exposing to the public for the first time now, this is exactly the scenario that has played out over the past year — with the only difference being that, rather than “a printing press” and a “magazine,” the story involved “a domain” and a “blog.” There are so many things about this story that are crazy, it’s difficult to know where to start, so let’s give the most important point first: The US government has effectively admitted that it totally screwed up and falsely seized & censored a non-infringing domain of a popular blog, having falsely claimed that it was taking part in criminal copyright infringement. Then, after trying to hide behind a totally secretive court process with absolutely no due process whatsoever (in fact, not even serving papers on the lawyer for the site or providing timely notifications — or providing any documents at all), for over a year, the government has finally realized it couldn’t hide any more and has given up, and returned the domain name to its original owner. If you ever wanted to understand why ICE’s domain seizures violate the law — and why SOPA and PROTECT IP are almost certainly unconstitutional — look no further than what happened in this case. Okay, now some details. First, remember Dajaz1.com? It was one of the sites seized over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend back in 2010 — a little over a year ago. Those seizures struck us as particularly interesting, because among the sites seized were a bunch of hip hop blogs, including a few that were highly ranked on Vibe’s list of the top hip hop blogs. These weren’t the kinds of things anyone would expect, when supporters of these domain seizures and laws like SOPA and PROTECT IP talk of “rogue sites.” Blogs would have lots of protected speech, and in the hip hop community these blogs, in particular, were like the new radio. Artists routinely leaked their works directly to these sites in order to promote their albums. We even pointed to a few cases of stars like Kanye West and Diddy tweeting links to some of the seized domains in the past. In fact, as the details came out, it became clear that ICE and the Justice Department were in way over their heads. ICE’s “investigation” was done by a technically inept recent college grad, who didn’t even seem to understand the basics of the technology. But it didn’t stop him from going to a judge and asking for a site to be completely censored with no due process. The Dajaz1 case became particularly interesting to us, after we saw evidence showing that the songs that ICE used in its affidavit as “evidence” of criminal copyright infringement were songs sent by representatives of the copyright holder with the request that the site publicize the works — in one case, even coming from a VP at a major music label. Even worse, about the only evidence that ICE had that these songs were infringing was the word of the “VP of Anti-Piracy Legal Affairs for the RIAA,” Carlos Linares, who was simply not in a position to know if the songs were infringing or authorized. In fact, one of the songs involved an artist not even represented by an RIAA label, and Linares clearly had absolutely no right to speak on behalf of that artist. Despite all of this, the government simply seized the domain, put up a big scary warning graphic on the site, suggesting its operators were criminals, and then refused to comment at all about the case. Defenders of the seizures insisted that this was all perfectly legal and nothing to be worried about. They promised us that the government had every right to do this and plenty of additional evidence to back up its claims. They promised us that the government would allow for plenty of due process within a reasonable amount of time. They also insisted that, after hearing nothing happening in the case for many months, it meant that no attempt to object to the seizure had occurred. Turns out… none of that was true. What happened next is a story that should never happen in the US. It’s like something out of Kafka or the movie Brazil, but it should never have happened under the US Constitution. First, you have to understand the two separate processes: there’s seizure and then there’s forfeiture. Under the seizure laws, the government has 60 days from seizure to “notify” those whose property it seized (imagine having the government swoop in and take away your property, and not even being told why for two whole months). Once notified, the property owner has 35 days to file a claim to request the return of the property. If that doesn’t happen, the government can effectively just keep the property, so it tends to rely on intimidation and threats towards anyone who indicates plans to ask for their property back (usually in the form of threatening to file charges). However, if such a claim is filed, the government then has 90 days to start the full “forfeiture” process, which would allow the government to keep the seized property and never have to give it back. If the claim to return the property is filed and the government does not file for forfeiture, it is required to return the property. Thus seizures are supposedly used as a temporary part of the investigation, to stop criminal activity or to prevent the destruction of evidence. However, that’s not how things always play out in real life. As we’d heard with a number of domain names that had been seized, the government began stalling like mad when contacted by representatives for domain holders seeking to get their domains back. ICE even flat out lied to the public, stating that no one was challenging the seizures, when it knew full well that some sites were, in fact, challenging. Out of that came the Rojadirecta case, but what of Dajaz1? After continuing to stall and refusing to respond to Dajaz1′s filing requesting the domain be returned, the government told Dajaz1′s lawyer, Andrew P. Bridges, that it would begin forfeiture procedures (as required by law if it wanted to keep the domain). Bridges made clear that Dajaz1 would challenge the forfeiture procedure and seek to get the domain name back at that time. Then, the deadline for the government to file for forfeiture came and went and nothing apparently happened. Absolutely nothing. Bridges contacted the government to ask what was going on, and was told that the government had received an extension from the court. Bridges, quite reasonably, asked how that was possible without him, as counsel for the site, being informed of it or given a chance to make the case for why such an extension was improper. He also asked for a copy of the the court’s order allowing the extension. The government told him no and that the extension was filed under seal and could not be released, even in redacted form. He asked for the motion papers asking for the extension. The government told him no and that the papers were filed under seal and could not be released, even in redacted form. He again asked whether he would be notified about further filings for extensions. The government told him no. He then asked the US attorney to inform the court that, if the government made another request for an extension, the domain owner opposed the extension and would like the opportunity to be heard. The government would not agree. And file further extensions the government did. Repeatedly. Or, at least that’s what Bridges was told. He sent someone to investigate the docket at the court, but the docket itself was secret, meaning there was no record of any of this available. The government was required to file for forfeiture by May. The initial (supposed) secret extension was until July. Then it got another one that went until September. And then another one until November… or so the government said. When Bridges asked the government for some proof that it had actually obtained the extensions in question, the government attorney told Bridges that he would just have “trust” him. Finally, the government decided that it would not file a forfeiture complaint — because there was no probable cause — and it let the last (supposed) extension expire. Only after Bridges asked again for the status of the domain did the government indicate that it would return the domain to its owner — something that finally happened today. Dajaz1.com is finally back in the hands of its rightful owner. This is really quite incredible, considering the “rush” with which it seized these domain names, claiming the urgency in stopping a crime in progress. But, of course, after realizing that it had no evidence to suggest a crime was ever in progress – there was absolutely no urgency to correct the error. The level of secrecy in this case makes it sound like a terrorist investigation, not the censorship of a popular music blog. Normally, when there’s a lawsuit, the docket is available on PACER. Even in cases where things are filed under seal or everything is redacted, there’s at least a placeholder for them in PACER. This case does not exist anywhere that anyone can find. The docket was apparently kept hidden in a judge’s office in Los Angeles the whole time. No one knew this was going on, other than the US Attorney and the representatives of Dajaz1 (who still never saw the docket or the extension orders). Let’s just take stock here for a second. We have the government clearly censoring free speech in the form of a blog that discussed the music world and was widely recognized for its influence in promoting new acts. The government seized the blog with no adversarial hearing and no initial due process. Then, rather than actually provide some sort of belated due process in the form of an adversarial hearing, it continued to deny any and all due process by secretly (even to Dajaz1′s own lawyer) extending the seizure without any way to challenge those extensions. All in all, the government completely censored a popular web site for over a year, when it had no real evidence for probable cause of infringement, as it had falsely claimed in the original rubber stamped affidavit. As we noted in reviewing the affidavit, the case had been put together by folks who clearly did not understand the law, the site or the music space. But to then double down on that and continue to hold the domain for a year in secret? That just compounds the error and takes it to new extremes. This was flat out censorship for no reason, for an entire year, by the US government… Everyone should be horrified by this. It also shows what a joke the claims of supporters are that since “a judge reviewed the affidavit,” there’s due process. Without the other party, there is no real due process. Not only that, but the government made sure, at every step of the way, that the other party was not heard. That’s horrifying. It wasn’t just an act of omission in leaving out the party, but actively preventing the party from being heard. And yet the feds and private companies continue to say we should just “trust them” to get these kinds of things right? Even more bizarre, they want to expand their ability to do this incontestable censorship through laws like PROTECT IP and SOPA? If anything, this massive screwup on the part of ICE, the Justice Department and the RIAA should lead us to go in the other direction. ICE and the DOJ should be investigated and reprimanded, if not directly penalized, for clear First Amendment violations, while the ICE program for seizing domains should be dismantled. John Morton, who led ICE’s domain seizure program, should tender his resignation or be fired. Victoria Espinel, the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, who defended these seizures to Congress, should issue a public apology, and begin a process to revamp the government’s role in such enforcement actions (and consider tendering her resignation as well). The federal government should issue a huge apology to the operators of Dajaz1 and make it clear that it will no longer take such drastic censorship actions. The RIAA should be investigated for providing claims about the site that were not true, and which it had no right to make. If Congress needs to do anything, it should be to investigate the lawless, unconstitutional, cowboy censorship and blocking of due process by both Homeland Security and the Justice Department. The last thing it should be doing is allowing more such actions. This whole thing has been a disgrace by the US government, starting with a bogus seizure, improper and illegal censorship, followed by denial of due process and unnecessary secrecy. Dajaz1 is currently reviewing its options in terms of whether it can or should take further action as a result of this, but at least it has its domain back. And people wonder why we’re so concerned about these seizures and new proposals to further such censorship. Untitled Document PSSNY OPUS-ISM Website OPUS-ISM Website
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NYS Budget Update

 
April 20, 2011


To All PSSNY Members and Affiliates:

As you know, the 2011-12 New York State Budget passed and was signed into law on March 31, 2011.  Since that time, we have worked arduously with state officials to get clarity on budget provisions related to pharmacy.  The following information is factual, as of now:

?        The pharmacy Medicaid benefit will be bundled into managed care, effective October 1, 2011.  This will effect approximately 3 million out of 4 million Medicaid beneficiaries who will be enrolled in managed care, meaning that PBMs will be managing the pharmacy portion of Medicaid.

 ?         Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement is reduced from AWP -16.25% to AWP -17%, effective April 1, 2011.  The dispensing fee for generic drugs is also reduced from $4.50 to $3.50, effective April 1, 2011.  The Department of Health Commissioner now has flexibility to change pharmacy reimbursement rates and establish a new pricing benchmark, different from AWP.

 The state is seeking federal approval for these changes, which may take time.  Once federal approval is granted, we have been told that the state will attempt to seek a retroactive reimbursement cut to the April 1 date or will impose additional prospective cuts to regain the "lost savings" as a result of delayed federal approval. 

 ?         A 2% across the board cut for all Medicaid providers, including pharmacy, is effective April 1, 2011.  The 2% cut will be deducted from weekly Medicaid checks for 2 years.

 ?         A voluntary mail order program for Medicaid recipients will be effective October 1, 2011.

 ?         The early refill process for Medicaid has been tightened.  Pharmacists will no longer be able to override the early refill edit due to a medication being lost or stolen.  Recipients must contact the Department of Health to request an override.  This is effective on April 1, 2011.

 ?         Opioid prescriptions will be limited to a maximum of four (per patient) every thirty days, effective December 1, 2011.  There will be override criteria established.

 ?         Starting on May 1, 2011, coverage for enteral nutritional supplements will be limited to persons who are fed via nasogastric, gastrostomy or jejunostomy tubes, persons with inborn metabolic disorders and children under 21 years of age with a documented diagnoses that prevents the absorption or the metabolizing of normal foods.

 We will continue to update you as more information becomes available.  Thank you.

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CSC 12 February 2012 Last updated at 03:10 ET Share this page Malaysia deports Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari A picture taken on 9 February, 2012 shows a Saudi internet surfer checking her twitter account at a coffee shop in Riyadh Mr Kashgari's controversial tweet sparked more than 30,000 responses, including death threats Continue reading the main story Related Stories Malaysia detains Saudi for tweet Australian faces 500 Saudi lashes Malaysian authorities have deported a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet. Police confirmed to the BBC that Hamza Kashgari was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday despite protests from human rights groups. Mr Kashgari's controversial tweet last week sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats. Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. Mr Kashgari, 23, fled Saudi Arabia last week and was detained upon his arrival in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. He had tweeted his doubts about Muhammad on the prophet's birthday last week. Saudi clerics condemned his remarks as blasphemous. Mr Kashgari apologised and deleted the tweet, but when he continued to receive threats, he left for Malaysia. The two countries do not have a formal extradition treaty but as fellow Muslim countries Malaysia has good relations with Saudi Arabia, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak, in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Kashgari's lawyer obtained an injunction on Sunday to halt his deportation, but it was too late, our correspondent says. Malaysia's home ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying Mr Kashgari would be sent back, the AFP news agency reports. "Malaysia has a long-standing arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other, and (Kashgari) will be repatriated under this arrangement," AFP quotes the statement as saying. Amnesty International has warned that Mr Kashgari could be executed in Saudi Arabia if he is found guilty of apostasy. "If the Malaysian authorities hand over Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, they could end up complicit in any violations he suffers," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty's Middle East division. April 11, 2013 Bold on Both Ends By DAVID BROOKS It’s time to entertain the possibility that President Obama is a right-wing extremist. After all, look at where he’s taking the country over his second term. We’re living in a country where 53 percent of children born to women under 30 are born out of wedlock, according to government data. Millions of people, especially men, are dropping out of the labor force. Nearly half the students who begin college are unable to graduate within six years. The social fabric for people without college degrees is in shambles. Yet President Obama is not offering proposals commensurate with those problems. Under his budget, domestic discretionary spending would be lower as a share of G.D.P. than it was under Reagan, both Bushes and Nixon. When it comes to this category, Obama’s budget would take us back to Eisenhower levels. The president is increasing total revenues to a historically high 20 percent of G.D.P. by 2023. Federal spending would remain at a way-above-average 22 percent of G.D.P. But Washington still can’t seem to devote enough money to address the challenges faced by the less-educated and ease the segmentation of America. That’s true even after you account for the domestic programs that are outside the discretionary budget category and have their own funding stream, like the new early childhood initiative. I generally come to celebrate, not criticize, this budget. Obama has the guts to take on special interests in his own party. He works hard to reduce inequality. He understands that entitlement programs represent a fundamental threat to the sustainability of the welfare state. He understands that politics can only work if the president transcends his base and builds a majority coalition. His budget should put to rest those crazy claims that he is some sort of Norwegian socialist. But being moderate means throwing away ideological blinders and facing reality. Right now, America faces two giant problems: social unraveling today and cataclysmic debt tomorrow. This budget takes small steps to address both problems when big strides are needed. So where do we go from here? That’s easy. First, we have the same kabuki debate we’ve been having for the past few decades. This debate is organized around the following trade-off: more revenue in exchange for more spending cuts. This debate will probably go nowhere. Republicans feel as if they’ve already given away the store on new revenue, so they are not going to be compromising. President Obama needs to show Democrats that this budget is the endpoint, not a starting point, for a further rightward drift. He doesn’t have much room to compromise either. The kabuki debate will probably end, as it usually does, with gridlock and name-calling. But then we can move on to Debate B. This debate would be organized around a different trade-off — not a balance between taxing and spending, but a balance between greater discretionary spending in exchange for structural entitlement reform. In this framework, Democrats would get a lot of the good ideas that are in the Obama budget, but they’d be bigger and more aggressive. We’d take the pre-k initiative, the spending on scientific research and the infrastructure spending. But then we’d throw on top other programs. Make more men marriageable (by helping them earn a reliable wage). Rebind the social fabric in atomized communities (social entrepreneurship funds). Maybe expand a national service program to give more young adults discipline, orientation and connections. Republicans would get structural entitlement reform. Here, too, we could build on the ideas in the Obama budget, like chained Consumer Price Index for Social Security and the expansion of means-testing for Medicare. Then we could throw on other modest structural reforms: Combine Medicare Parts A and B and further limiting Medigap plans in order to induce seniors to make more cost-conscious decisions. Repair federal pensions and the disability system. Means test Social Security and raise the Medicare eligibility age for affluent workers. This deal wouldn’t represent the moderation of the mushy middle. It would represent muscular moderation that is bold on both ends. Persuade majorities that discretionary spending is not just foreign aid and earmarks. It’s the government’s best shot at boosting social mobility. Remind Americans that their country can’t be a rising nation if we have an entitlements system fit for an aging and declining one. Right now, we are the North Korea of fiscal policy. We’re living under the insane sequester that cuts those programs we should be increasing and spares exactly those old-age programs we should be reforming. Both parties should have incentive to get to a new fiscal regime. Party leaders could postpone the debate about tax revenues. They could accept higher deficits short term. Most important, they could embrace a deal-making framework that would direct attention toward urgent needs: discretionary programs for now, structural entitlement reforms that accumulate over time. From ESC1101816636291_1101689857431_2322@in.constantcontact.com Wed Sep 19 06:07:33 2007 Received: from ccm01.constantcontact.com (ccm01.constantcontact.com [63.251.135.74]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l8JA7UpX015720 for ; Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:07:32 -0400 Received: from ws009 (unknown [10.250.0.102]) by ccm01.constantcontact.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4081CB8054 for ; Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:07:15 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <1101816636291.1101689857431.2322.6.1206007B@scheduler> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:07:32 -0400 (EDT) From: The Twin Towers Alliance Reply-To: rebuild@twintowersalliance.com Sender: The Twin Towers Alliance To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: The Twin Towers Alliance sees good reason to hope for a better WTC. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_15109436_1486971061.1190196452004" X-Mailer: Roving Constant Contact 0 (http://www.constantcontact.com) List-Unsubscribe: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?p=un&m=1101689857431&se=2322&k=50725975&t=1101816636291 X-Return-Path-Hint: ESC1101816636291_1101689857431_2322@in.roving.com X-Roving-ID: 1101689857431.2322 X-Lumos-SenderID: 1101689857431 X-Roving-CampaignId: 1101816636291 X-Roving-StreamId: 0 Status: RO Content-Length: 12853 Lines: 161 ------=_Part_15109436_1486971061.1190196452004 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit You are receiving this email because of your support for the Twin Towers Alliance. If you no longer wish to receive updates on our progress PLEASE use the "unsubscribe" link. Please do not mark the email as spam, which is very harmful to our efforts to reach those who do want to be kept informed. Thank you. You may unsubscribe http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?p=un&m=1101689857431&se=2322&t=1101816636291&lang=en&reason=T if you no longer wish to receive our emails. Twin Towers Alliance header [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=d7ihwecab.0.a5aqwecab.xmjk6acab.2322&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftwintowersalliance.com%2F] Dear Twin Towers Supporters, The TTA had a very successful trial run on 1010 WINS radio in New York, with a sixty-second ad that ran just before 9/11. It gave us fresh evidence that there is tremendous support behind the scenes for doing whatever it takes to get the Twin Towers back in the skyline. So often we hear from people who say "everyone" they know agrees. Even Opie & Anthony said the same thing on their show last week. Why are we putting up with the official "so what?" People are sick of being conned. Dissatisfaction is "in the air" and we want to leverage it with a radio blitz before renewing our efforts on the political front. We have posted the two ads [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=d7ihwecab.0.b5aqwecab.xmjk6acab.2322&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twintowersalliance.com%2Fpetition%2F%3Fpage_id%3D87] that ran on the website along with the various levels of support required to sponsor an ad. We hope that everyone who has been behind the idea of rescuing the Twin Towers will recognize that we really have a very good shot at it if people care enough to contribute what they can. We are not powerless. If we organize our efforts and translate our support into dollars, we can win this fight. It's up to you. Thank you very much. The Twin Towers Alliance Because People Want Their Towers Back... Whose Country Is It? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please forward to others who will understand why this matters. http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1101689857431&ea=ruben@nylxs.com&a=1101816636291 This email was sent to ruben@nylxs.com, by rebuild@twintowersalliance.com Update Profile/Email Address http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?p=oo&m=1101689857431&se=2322&t=1101816636291&lang=en&reason=T Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe(TM) http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?p=un&m=1101689857431&se=2322&t=1101816636291&lang=en&reason=T Privacy Policy: http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp Email Marketing by Constant Contact(R) www.constantcontact.com The Twin Towers Alliance | 186 Pinehurst Avenue, #6E | New York | NY | 10033 ------=_Part_15109436_1486971061.1190196452004 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
You are receiving this email because of your support for the Twin Towers Alliance. If you no longer wish to receive updates on our progress PLEASE use the "unsubscribe" link. Please do not mark the email as spam, which is very harmful to our efforts to reach those who do want to be kept informed. Thank you.
 
You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails.

Twin Towers Alliance header

 
Dear Twin Towers Supporters,

 

The TTA had a very successful trial run on 1010 WINS radio in New York, with a sixty-second ad that ran just before 9/11. It gave us fresh evidence that there is tremendous support behind the scenes for doing whatever it takes to get the Twin Towers back in the skyline. So often we hear from people who say "everyone" they know agrees. Even Opie & Anthony said the same thing on their show last week. Why are we putting up with the official "so what?"
 
People are sick of being conned. Dissatisfaction is "in the air" and we want to leverage it with a radio blitz before renewing our efforts on the political front. We have posted the two ads that ran on the website along with the various levels of support required to sponsor an ad.
 
We hope that everyone who has been behind the idea of rescuing the Twin Towers will recognize that we really have a very good shot at it if people care enough to contribute what they can.
 
We are not powerless. If we organize our efforts and translate our support into dollars, we can win this fight. It's up to you.
 
Thank you very much.

 

The Twin Towers Alliance

 

Because People Want Their Towers Back... Whose Country Is It?
This email was sent to ruben@nylxs.com, by rebuild@twintowersalliance.com
The Twin Towers Alliance | 186 Pinehurst Avenue, #6E | New York | NY | 10033
------=_Part_15109436_1486971061.1190196452004-- Internet RIAA Case Juror Speaks: 2 Jurors Wanted $3.6M Fine Jason Mick (Blog) - October 10, 2007 2:14 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It turns out that Jammie Thomas could have been worse off The tech news industry has been buzzing with news of the $222,000 verdict in the precedent setting civil case Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas, the first instance of an RIAA complaint going to a trial by jury. Now a juror from the case has opened up and discussed their feelings about the case and what went on inside the courtroom. While some may feel the $9,250 per song fine levied against Thomas was extreme and unreasonable, she could have been far worse off, if a couple of the jurors had their way. In an interview with THREAT LEVEL on Tuesday, Michael Hegg, one of the jurors from the case, reported that two jurors had tried to sway the other jurors to adopt the maximum fine per violation, $150,000 per piece of copyrighted material. As Thomas was found guilty of 24 such violations, this would have resulted in a $3.6 million fine. Another juror, according to Hegg, was insistent on making the fine as low as possible. The minimum amount per violation, by law is $750. This would have led to a far lesser fine of $18,000, still a significant sum, but over $200,000 less than the $222,000 jury decision. Hegg, a 38-year-old steelworker from Duluth, Minnesota who had just returned home from a 14 hour shift when the interview took place, was unsympathetic at Thomas's plight. He elaborated, "She's a liar. She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars. Spoofing? We're thinking, 'Oh my God, you got to be kidding.' [The verdict was] a compromise, yes, we wanted to send a message that you don't do this, that you have been warned." Hegg felt that the fact that Thomas turned a different hard drive over to investigators than the original was particularly damning. He repeated his feelings that she was being deceptive. "She lied. There was no defense. Her defense sucked," he elaborated. Hegg is a married father of two and says his wife is an "Internet guru," but admits to not knowing much about technology issues. Hegg said his opinion and that of the jury was swayed by a number of pieces of evidence presented by the RIAA. One exhibit, viewed multiple times showed that there were 2 million users on Kazaa, the network Thomas was accused of using, on the night RIAA investigators found Thomas's alleged folder. Also, Thomas's use of the name "Terreastarr" on other online accounts, the same as the name on the Kazaa account, helped convince them. Then there was the fact that the RIAA's technical experts matched the IP and MAC address to her computer. Expert testimony had revealed that Thomas had not used a wireless router, casting further doubt on her claims that she was hacked. Hegg seemed almost enraged at Thomas as he concluded the interview by saying, "I think she thought a jury from Duluth would be naïve. We're not that stupid up here. I don't know what the f**k she was thinking, to tell you the truth." Hegg's statements echo the Bush administration's statement earlier this week, that the punishment fit the crime and serves as a good warning to potential violators. The RIAA has a strong ally in the current U.S. administration, which has made major efforts to police copyright infringement and raise the fines for violators, including championing and signing into law the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. This law mandated that possession of even a single copy of a film unreleased on dvd could subject the owner to a stay in prison. The law included no provisions for currently unreleased or untranslated foreign films, but so far the motion picture industry has been slightly less zealous in prosecuting infringers than the RIAA. Recent reports put the RIAA settlements at nearly 36,000 individual settlements, by certain estimates. Still there are many around the country who feel that she got off too lightly or was fined too heavily or unjustly. Even the jury seems to have mirrored this same split. One wanted to just fine her the minimum amount, others wanted to fine her the maximum amount $3.6 million dollars. The end result is still the same though: Thomas is going to have to pay, unless her appeal somehow succeeds. Meanwhile the RIAA can rest content with their victory as they ponder their next plan of attack in their colorful battle against copyright infringement. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On CHOW: So much good stuff. So little time. Log in | Sign up Why join? Remember me | Forgot password? Welcome (log out) View profile Search: News All CNET The Web Advanced search See the Next Phones NowToday on CNETReviewsNewsDownloadsTips & TricksCNET TVCompare PricesBlogs Business Tech| Cutting Edge| Access| Threats| Media 2.0| Markets| Personal Tech| News Blogs| Video| Extra| My News | RSS The Iconoclast Subscribe to The Iconoclast October 8, 2007 10:15 PM PDT Will appeal succeed in RIAA's $222,000 'making available' case? Posted by Declan McCullagh The Minnesota woman who was slapped with a $222,000 penalty for "making available" songs on the Kazaa network is appealing her loss. But can she actually win against the Recording Industry Association of America? There's probably a 50-50 chance. On one hand, the RIAA has won some minor victories in the last few years with its "making available" arguments to expand copyright law beyond what it actually seems to say. Now that there's finally going to be some serious public and judicial scrutiny, however, the odds are closer to even. (If the RIAA wins, by the way, the precedent would create some real dangers for innocent users. But more on this later.) [#1] What's important to remember here is that the RIAA's victory rests in large part on, as I wrote last week, the judge's decision that the record labels need only prove that Thomas made copyrighted music "available" on the Kazaa network. That means leaving the songs in a publicly accessible directory where they might possibly have been downloaded. Thomas confirmed earlier Monday that her appeal to the 8th Circuit will center on that point. To understand how this will play out, let's start with the plain text of the relevant part of federal law. It says: 17 USC 106: The owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; (3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending Illicit distribution of copyrighted materials over Kazaa involves paragraphs (1) and (3). Those paragraphs restrict the unauthorized "reproduction" or "distribution" of music--which sure doesn't seem to cover Thomas leaving songs in her shared directory if they were never actually downloaded. So how can the RIAA get away with this? This is where things get murky. The definition of "publication," which the U.S. Supreme Court says is the same as distribution, says: "Offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication." [#2] Some courts have interpreted that to mean proof of actual copying is necessary; others haven't. Take a 1997 case involving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, sued by genealogical researchers who sold their copyrighted work on microfiche. Instead of buying multiple copies, the Mormons bought only one, made copies, and sent the duplicates to their branch libraries. The copyright-holding genealogists took the position that the RIAA does today. They claimed that merely proving the copyrighted work was available was good enough. In response, the church argued that the researchers needed to show a library patron actually had read the pirated microfiche. The RIAA's argument won. The 4th Circuit concluded by a 2-1 margin: We agree with the (researchers). When a public library adds a work to its collection, lists the work in its index or catalog system, and makes the work available to the borrowing or browsing public, it has completed all the steps necessary for distribution to the public. At that point, members of the public can visit the library and use the work. Were this not to be considered distribution within the meaning of Section 106(3), a copyright holder would be prejudiced by a library that does not keep records of public use, and the library would unjustly profit by its own omission. Because a split decision in a different federal circuit a decade ago in an unrelated case may not be entirely persuasive, the RIAA has invoked other arguments as well. And they've had some preliminary success. Among them: 1. The WIPO copyright treaty, which the United States has ratified, covers "the making available to the public" of copyrighted works. 2. Marybeth Peters of the U.S. Copyright Office says that making a file "available for other users of a peer to peer network to download...constitutes an infringement of the exclusive distribution right, as well of the reproduction right." 3. Having child pornography in a Kazaa shared folder is, at least in the 10th Circuit, good enough to support a conviction in a criminal case. 4. The 9th Circuit believes that copyright law was infringed when peer-to-peer users "make their collections available to all other" users. [#3] Those are strong arguments. But there's another side to the story as well (which is why I believe that Thomas has a 50-50 chance): WIPO is not binding by itself; Marybeth Peters' opinions aren't as important as what the law actually says; a civil dispute is different from a criminal prosecution; and so on. Not all judges in the RIAA cases have agreed with the music industry's lawyers. In a preliminary ruling in Interscope Records v. Duty, a judge said last year: "To be clear, we do not conclude that the mere presence of copyrighted sound recordings in Duty's share file constitutes copyright infringement. We have an incomplete understanding of the Kazaa technology at this stage..." At least two other courts have followed that line of thinking. In a pre-trial motion in UMG Recordings v. Lindor, the court ruled that: "At trial, plaintiffs will have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant did indeed infringe plaintiff's copyrights by convincing the fact-finder, based on the evidence plaintiffs have gathered, that defendant actually shared sound files belonging to plaintiffs." (Emphasis added.) Most judges, though, haven't spent too much time puzzling through the implications of "making available." One exception is U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in Elektra v. Barker, who has heard arguments from not just the RIAA but also the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Association of Publishers, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department, by the way, sided with the RIAA. A decision from Judge Karas is expected at any time. All those cases receive something of a boost from U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel's 2005 ruling in an offshoot of the original Napster litigation. Patel is no tech-neophyte; she presided over Napster, a 1990s-era encryption source code case, and the recent Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit over Target's Web site. She wrote: The gravamen of the parties' dispute lies in whether the Copyright Act requires proof of the actual dissemination of a copy or phonorecord in order to establish the unlawful distribution of a copyrighted work...If Congress wanted to make clear that the distribution right was broad enough to encompass making a work available to the public without proof of actual distribution, it was perfectly capable of doing so. Yet plaintiffs have failed to identify anything in (the law's) legislative history, much less the statute itself, to suggest that Congress even considered the scope of civil liability for copyright infringement in enacting the statute. Any attempt to infer legislative intent from such silence is at best speculative. [#4] I said at the beginning of this article that if the RIAA wins on "making available," the precedent would create real dangers for innocent users. That's because the awesome weapon of copyright law can be turned on people who only mistakenly ran afoul of it. The case of the Mormon church buying only one copy of the microfiche for multiple libraries was pretty straightforward: the purpose of any library is to distribute information, and intent to distribute can be assumed. But computers are far slipperier than libraries (or, put another way, we're all libraries now). If my mother accidentally shares her computer's entire hard drive with the world by clicking the wrong button in an OS X setup menu, is that "making available?" Should she be held liable for $222,000 in damages, and lose her house, for accidentally making two CDs of music available to the world? If I don't upgrade to a newer version of my operating system even though I know there's a security glitch that opens my hard drive to the Internet, does that mean I'm "making available" my music collection? Do Internet service providers "make available" access to Kazaa? Do search engines "make available" links to infringing files? "It's hard to distinguish having something in a Kazaa shared directory versus having it on my shelf and not locking my door or having it on a computer and not bothering with a firewall so the college kids--who I know full well live next door--can hop on and take it," says Jessica Litman, who teaches copyright law at the University of Michigan and is the author of Digital Copyright. "If the RIAA eventually wins on this one, it would be a ruling I'd be willing to say is wrong," Litman added. These are not all easy questions to answer, especially because intent doesn't matter much in copyright law. It's what lawyers like to call a strict liability offense--meaning that even accidental "making available" can slap you with a $222,000 penalty. This might make sense for corporate defendants, but it gets bizarre quickly when applied to hundreds of millions of Internet users. It's true that ditching the "making available" idea and making the RIAA prove the songs were actually downloaded means its lawyers would have to work harder. And it wouldn't solve all of these problems above. But it would be a small step toward repairing some of the imbalances in copyright law today. Topics:intellectual property Tags:RIAA, copyright infringement Bookmark:Digg Del.icio.us Reddit 1 comments Post a commentTalkBack I hope her Appeal Is Successful. starcannon Oct 8, 2007, 11:55 PM PDT Read more comments > Recent posts from The Iconoclast Will appeal succeed in RIAA's $222,000 'making available' case? Bush admin: RIAA win shows copyright law is 'effective' Why the RIAA should have won (though the fine was too high) Four reasons why the RIAA won a jury verdict of $220,000 Teamsters want Net neutrality laws, but of course it's not a partisan issue About The Iconoclast Declan McCullagh has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C. for over a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says: "We oughta have a new federal law against this." Subscribe to this blog Click this link to view this blog as XML. Add this feed to your online news reader Add to Google Add to my Yahoo Add to MSN Add to Bloglines Add to Newsgator Resource center from News.com sponsors Want to know why Verizon Wireless is such an advanced network? 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Privacy policy|Terms of use November 2, 2008 The Reckoning From Midwest to M.T.A., Pain From Global Gamble By CHARLES DUHIGG and CARTER DOUGHERTY “People come up to me in the grocery store and say, ‘How did we get suckered into this?’ ” — Marc Hujik, of the Kenosha, Wis., school board On a snowy day two years ago, the school board in Whitefish Bay, Wis., gathered to discuss a looming problem: how to plug a gaping hole in the teachers’ retirement plan. It turned to David W. Noack, a trusted local investment banker, who proposed that the district borrow from overseas and use the money for a complex investment that offered big profits. “Every three months you’re going to get a payment,” he promised, according to a tape of the meeting. But would it be risky? “There would need to be 15 Enrons” for the district to lose money, he said. The board and four other nearby districts ultimately invested $200 million in the deal, most of it borrowed from an Irish bank. Without realizing it, the schools were imitating hedge funds. Half a continent away, New York subway officials were also being wooed by bankers. Officials were told that just as home buyers had embraced adjustable-rate loans, New York could save money by borrowing at lower interest rates that changed every day. For some of the deals, the officials were encouraged to rely on the same Irish bank as the Wisconsin schools. During the go-go investing years, school districts, transit agencies and other government entities were quick to jump into the global economy, hoping for fast gains to cover growing pension costs and budgets without raising taxes. Deals were arranged by armies of persuasive financiers who received big paydays. But now, hundreds of cities and government agencies are facing economic turmoil. Far from being isolated examples, the Wisconsin schools and New York’s transportation system are among the many players in a financial fiasco that has ricocheted globally. The Wisconsin schools are on the brink of losing their money, confronting educators with possible budget cuts. Interest rates for New York’s subways are skyrocketing and contributing to budget woes that have transportation officials considering higher fares and delaying long-planned track repairs. And the bank at the center of the saga, named Depfa, is now in trouble, threatening the stability of its parent company in Munich and forcing German officials to intervene with a multibillion-dollar bailout to stop a chain reaction that could freeze Germany’s economic system. “I am really worried,” said Becky Velvikis, a first-grade teacher at Grewenow Elementary in Kenosha, Wis., one of the districts that invested in Mr. Noack’s deal. “If millions of dollars are gone, what happens to my retirement? Or the construction paper and pencils and supplies we need to teach?” The trail through Wisconsin, New York and Europe illustrates how this financial crisis has moved around the world so fast, why it is so hard to tame, and why cities, schools and many other institutions will probably struggle for years. “The local papers and radio shows call us idiots, and now when I go home, my kids ask me, ‘Dad, did you do something wrong?’ ” said Shawn Yde, the director of business services in the Whitefish Bay district. “This is something I’ll regret until the day I die.” Selling Risk Whitefish Bay’s school district did not intend to become a hedge fund. It and four nearby districts were just trying to finance retirement obligations that were growing as health care costs rose. Mr. Noack, the local representative of Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, a St. Louis investment bank, had been advising Wisconsin school boards for two decades, helping them borrow for new gymnasiums and classrooms. His father had taught at an area high school for 47 years. All six of his children attended Milwaukee schools. Mr. Noack told the Whitefish Bay board that investing in the global economy carried few risks, according to the tape. “What’s the best investment? It’s called a collateralized debt obligation,” or a C.D.O., Mr. Noack said. He described it as a collection of bonds from 105 of the most reputable companies that would pay the school board a small return every quarter. “We’re being very conservative,” Mr. Noack told the board, composed of lawyers, salesmen and a homemaker who lived in the affluent Milwaukee suburb. Soon, Whitefish Bay and the four other districts borrowed $165 million from Depfa and contributed $35 million of their own money to purchase three C.D.O.’s sold by the Royal Bank of Canada, which had a relationship with Mr. Noack’s company. But Mr. Noack’s explanation of a C.D.O. was very wrong. Mr. Noack, who through his lawyer declined to comment, had attended only a two-hour training session on C.D.O.’s, he told a friend. The schools’ $200 million was actually used as collateral for a complicated form of insurance guaranteeing about $20 billion of corporate bonds. That investment — known as a synthetic C.D.O. — committed the boards to paying off other bondholders if corporations failed to honor their debts. If just 6 percent of the bonds insured went bad, the Wisconsin educators could lose all their money. If none of the bonds defaulted, the schools would receive about $1.8 million a year after paying off their own debt. By comparison, the C.D.O.’s offered only a modestly better return than a $35 million investment in ultra-safe Treasury bonds, which would have paid about $1.5 million a year, with virtually no risk. The boards, as part of their deal, received thick packets of documents. “I’ve never read the prospectus,” said Marc Hujik, a local financial adviser and a member of the Kenosha school board who spent 13 years on Wall Street. “We had all our questions answered satisfactorily by Dave Noack, so I wasn’t worried.” Wisconsin schools were not the only ones to jump into such complicated financial products. More than $1.2 trillion of C.D.O.’s have been sold to buyers of all kinds since 2005 — including many cities and government agencies — an increase of 270 percent from the four previous years combined, according to Thomson Reuters. “Selling these products to municipalities was pretty widespread,” said Janet Tavakoli, a finance industry consultant in Chicago. “They tend to be less sophisticated. So bankers sell them products stuffed with junk.” From the Wisconsin deal, the Royal Bank of Canada received promises of payments totaling about $11.2 million, according to documents. Stifel Nicolaus made about $1.2 million. Mr. Noack’s total salary was about $300,000 a year, according to someone with knowledge of his finances. And Depfa received interest on its loans. In separate statements, the Royal Bank of Canada and Stifel Nicolaus said board members signed documents indicating they understood the investments’ risks. Both companies said they were not financial advisers to the boards but merely sold them products or services. Stifel Nicolaus said its relationship with the boards ended in 2007. Mr. Noack now works for a rival firm. “Everyone knew New York guys were making tons of money on these kinds of deals,” said Mr. Hujik, of the school board. “It wasn’t implausible that we could make money, too.” A Bank Goes Global By the time Depfa financed the Wisconsin schools’ investment, it had already become an emblem of the new global economy. It was founded 86 years ago as a sleepy German lender, and for most of its history had focused on its home market. But in 2002 a new chief executive, Gerhard Bruckermann, moved Depfa to the freewheeling financial center of Dublin to take advantage of low corporate taxes. He soon pushed the company into São Paulo, Mumbai, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Dallas, New York, Tokyo and elsewhere. Depfa became one of Europe’s most profitable banks and was famous for lavish events and large paychecks. In 2006, top executives took home the equivalent of $33 million at today’s exchange rates. Mr. Bruckermann was a gregarious leader who joked that he hoped to make all employees into millionaires. He divided his time between a London home and a vast farm in Spain, where he grew exotic medicinal plants. And his success fueled an arrogance, former colleagues say. Mr. Bruckermann once told a trade publication that Depfa, unlike German banks, understood how to benefit from the global economy. “With our efforts, we are like the one-eyed man who becomes king in the land of the blind,” he was quoted as saying. Mr. Bruckermann, who left the bank earlier this year, did not respond to requests for an interview. But as Depfa grew, other European banks began competing with the firm. So executives stretched into riskier deals — the sort that would eventually send shockwaves across Europe and the United States. Some of Mr. Bruckermann’s employees grew concerned about deals like one struck in 2005 with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, the agency overseeing the city and suburban subways, buses and trains. For years, municipal agencies like the M.T.A. had raised money by issuing plain-vanilla bonds with fixed interest rates. But then bankers began telling officials that there was a way to get cheaper financing. Bankers said that cities, like home buyers, could save money with adjustable-rate loans, where the payments started low and changed over time. What they did not emphasize was that such payments could eventually skyrocket. Such borrowing — known as variable-rate bonds — also carried big fees for Wall Street. The pitches were very successful. Municipalities issued twice as many variable-rate bonds last year as they did a decade earlier. But variable-rate bonds had a hitch: many investors would purchase them only if a bank like Depfa was hired as a buyer of last resort, ready to acquire bonds from investors who could find no other buyers. Depfa collected fees for serving that role, but expected it would rarely have to honor such pledges. Mr. Bruckermann’s salespeople traveled the world encouraging officials to sign up for variable-rate loans. And bureaucrats and politicians, including some in New York, jumped in. By 2006 Depfa was the largest buyer of last resort in the world, standing behind $2.9 billion of bonds issued that year alone. It backed a $200 million bond issued by the M.T.A. But as Depfa grew, it became more reliant on enormous short-term loans to finance its operations. Those loans cost less, and thus helped the bank achieve higher profits, but only when times were good. Indeed, some employees were worried about that debt. But Mr. Bruckermann plowed ahead, and it paid off. In 2007, even as the global economy was softening, Mr. Bruckermann persuaded one of Germany’s biggest lenders, Hypo Real Estate, to purchase Depfa for $7.8 billion. Mr. Bruckermann’s cut was more than $150 million. He left the company to grow oranges on his Spanish estate. The Risks Turn Bad Last March the delicate web tying Wisconsin, Dublin and Manhattan became an anchor dragging everyone down. Mr. Yde, the director of business services for the Whitefish Bay district, began receiving troubling messages indicating the district’s investments were declining. Worried, he started coming into his office at dawn, before the hallways of Whitefish Bay High School filled with students. As the sun rose, Mr. Yde searched for explanations by the light of his computer screen. He Googled “C.D.O.’s.” He called bankers in London and New York. Each person referred him to someone else. Then notices arrived saying that the bonds insured by Whitefish Bay’s C.D.O.’s were defaulting. It became increasingly likely that the district’s money would be seized to pay off other bondholders. Most, if not all, of the $200 million would probably be lost. As other districts received similar notices, panic grew. For some boards, interest payments on borrowed money were now larger than revenue from the investments. Officials began quietly warning that they might have to dip into school funds. “This is going to have a tremendous financial impact,” said Robert F. Kitchen, a member of the West Allis-West Milwaukee school board. Officials say some districts may have to cut courses like art and drama, curtail gym and classroom maintenance, or forgo replacing teachers who retire. Problems were emerging elsewhere, as well. Depfa’s executives were realizing that their loans to the Wisconsin schools were unlikely to be repaid. Additionally, bonds all over the world were declining in value, exposing the company to the possibility they would have to make good on their pledges as a buyer of last resort. And Depfa was still borrowing billions each month to cover its short-term loans. By autumn, the short-term debt of the bank and its parent company, Hypo, totaled $81 billion. Then, in mid-September, the American investment bank Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Short-term lending markets froze up. Ratings agencies, including Standard & Poor’s, downgraded Depfa, citing the company’s difficulties borrowing at affordable rates. That set off a crisis in Germany, where officials worried that Depfa’s sudden need for cash would drag down its parent company and set off a chain reaction at other banks. The German government and private banks extended $64 billion in credit to Hypo to stop it from imploding. “We will not allow the distress of one financial institution to endanger the entire system,” Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said at the time. That crisis spread almost immediately to the M.T.A. The transportation authority, guided by Gary Dellaverson, a rumpled, cigarillo-smoking chief financial officer, had $3.75 billion of variable-rate debt outstanding. About $200 million of that debt was backed by Depfa. When the bank was downgraded, investors dumped those transportation bonds, because of worries they would get stuck with them if Depfa’s problems worsened. Depfa was forced to buy $150 million of them, and bonds worth billions of dollars issued by other municipalities. Then came the twist: Depfa’s contracts said that if it bought back bonds, the municipalities had to pay a higher-than-average interest rate. The New York transportation authority’s repayment obligation could eventually balloon by about $12 million a year on the Depfa loans alone. On its own, that cost could be absorbed by the agency. But, as the economy declined, the M.T.A. had lost hundreds of millions because tax receipts — which finance part of its budget — were falling. And its ability to renew its variable-rate bonds at low interest rates was hurt by the trouble at Depfa and other banks. The transportation authority now faces a $900 million shortfall, according to officials. It is “fairly breathtaking,” Mr. Dellaverson told the M.T.A.’s finance committee. “This is not a tolerable long-term position for us to be in.” In a recent interview, Mr. Dellaverson defended New York’s use of variable bonds. “Variable-rate debt has helped M.T.A. save millions of dollars, and we’ve been conservative in issuing it,” he said. “But there are risks, which we work hard to mitigate. Usually it works. But what’s happening today is a total lack of marketplace rationality.” In a statement, the transportation authority said that it was exploring options to reduce the cost of the Depfa-backed bonds, that its variable-rate bonds had delivered savings even during the current turmoil and that the agency had remained within its budget on debt payments this year. However, the transportation authority has already announced it will raise subway and train fares next year because of various fiscal problems, and may be forced to shrink the work force and reduce some bus routes. Some analysts say fares will probably rise again in 2010. The Depfa fallout doesn’t end there. Rating agencies have downgraded the bonds of more than 75 municipal agencies backed by Depfa, including in California, Connecticut, Illinois and South Dakota. Officials in Florida, Massachusetts and Montana have cut budgets because of C.D.O.’s or similar risky bets. And Hypo, the German company that bought Depfa, last week asked the German government for financial help for the third time. Depfa has frozen much of its business, according to Wall Street bankers, and though it continues to honor its commitments, some wonder for how long. The Wisconsin school districts have filed suit against the Royal Bank of Canada and Stifel Nicolaus alleging misrepresentations. Board members hope they will prevail and schools and retirement plans will emerge unscathed. The companies dispute the lawsuit’s claims. Mr. Noack is not named as a defendant and is cooperating with the school boards. In Mrs. Velvikis’s classroom at Grewenow Elementary in Kenosha, students have recently completed a lesson in which each first grader contributed a vegetable to a common vat of “stone soup.” The project — based on a children’s book — teaches the benefits of working together. The schools have learned that when everyone works together, they can also all starve. “Our funding is already so limited,” Mrs. Velvikis said. “We rely on parent donations for some supplies. You hear about all these millions of dollars that have been lost, and you think, that’s got to come out of somewhere.” NPR will present reports on this topic throughout the week on “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition Sunday” and on the Planet Money blog and podcast at npr.org. From SRS0=9975WQ=DI=aol.com=kingsrdg@srs.bis.na.blackberry.com Wed Jul 15 14:16:39 2009 Received: from smtp02.bis.na.blackberry.com (smtp02.bis.na.blackberry.com [216.9.248.49]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6FIGaTn017579 for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:16:39 -0400 Received: from bxe1254.bisx.prod.on.blackberry (bxe1254.bisx.prod.on.blackberry [172.20.204.223]) by srs.bis.na.blackberry.com (8.13.7 TEAMON/8.13.7) with ESMTP id n6FI9tRr010589 for ruben@mrbrklyn.com; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:17:33 GMT X-rim-org-msg-ref-id: 1082703052 Message-ID: <1082703052-1247681762-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-960699497-@bxe1254.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> Reply-To: Kingsrdg@aol.com X-Priority: Normal References: <20090606153008.GA2614@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <1794190244-1244302307-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-577475374-@bxe1144.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> <20090616172710.GA5505@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBCBF85299655-17DC-281@MBLK-M41.sysops.aol.com> <20090616183300.GA6280@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBD80EB196446-10A4-991@Webmail-mg05.sim.aol.com> <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBD37B45751CDF-2FE0-453C@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> <20090715175119.GA15578@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBD38E07B2CE57-2FE0-4D45@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com><20090715181055.GA17490@www2.mrbrklyn.com> In-Reply-To: <20090715181055.GA17490@www2.mrbrklyn.com> Sensitivity: Normal Importance: Normal To: "Ruben Safir" Subject: Re: sat & sunday--july 25 & 26 From: Kingsrdg@aol.com Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:15:42 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from base64 to 8bit by www2.mrbrklyn.com id n6FIGaTn017579 Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 11185 Lines: 359 Whose are good ? Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:10:55 To: Cc: Subject: Re: sat & sunday--july 25 & 26 On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 02:05:54PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > need coverage for july 25th & 26th ???????????????????? > > will not take no for a answer > OK - Those are good. > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Sent: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 1:51 pm > Subject: Re: Check > > > > On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 11:51:37AM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > Can give you July 27th Monday 12-8pm let me know asap...thank you > > Checks are in.................. Roy > > > > es - I will be there > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm > Subject: Re: Check > > > > On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > ck is in the store.....come & get it > Roy > > Good Morning > I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. But, > WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays > and of course Sundays) for you if you need them. I'm scheduled for > ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else is > lear > Working: > Saturday 7-18 > ed 7-22 > riday 7-24 > ed 7-29 > riday 7-31 > aturday 8-1 > ues 8-4 > ed 8-5 > ri 8-7 > ues 8-11 > ed 8-12 > ri 8-14 > at 8-15 > Currently Clear > un 7-19, Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, > ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 > Sun 8-2, > Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10 > > hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way.. > Ruben > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm > Subject: Re: Check > > > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > it will be here in the store on wednesday > with all the other payroll > > > omorro > w? > Ruben > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: Kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: Ruben Safir > Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm > Subject: Check > > > > On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > Call me asap > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash. > Ruben > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > > Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 > To: > Cc: Ruben Safir > Subject: Re: Hours > > > > Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there. > > Ruben > > > On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > > > June 5th Sunday is yours > > ------Original Message------ > > From: Ruben Safir > > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > =2 > 0 > Subject: Re: Hours > > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28 PM > > > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > > Need the following dates..... > > > > > > May 27th....................................................... > . 12 to > pm > > > > > > June 1st, 10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm to 8pm > > > > > > July 5th Sunday..........................................10 am to 5 pm > > > > > > July 8th & 13th............................................. 8 am to=2 > 08 > m > > > > > > July 22nd, & 27th........................................12 pm to 8 pm > > > > > >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on the > > alternating Mondays. > > > > Any chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped? > > > > Have you asked the office about the check? > > > > > > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 > > > > > > Ruben > > > > > > > > Roy > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: kingsrdg@aol.com > > > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm > > > > > > > > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a few hours...Please > > > > > > Roy --call me asap--917-816-3275 > > > > > > A Good Credit Score > is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! > > > > > > > -- > > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI > afir > 998 > > > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI > afir > 00 > 2 > > > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to > > ur > wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own > ociety." > > > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be > amned.< > > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have > een > ttached20at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > > > > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > > > > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > -- > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of > the world - RI > afir > 998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to > ur > wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own > ociety." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be > amned.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have > een > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > > Cop > yright for the Digital Millennium > -- > ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI > afir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is th > at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > 20 ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI > afir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our > wn > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn > ed.< > ou must be=2 > 0a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we ar > e becoming sharecroppers to our > wn > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one." Copyright for the Digital Millennium From Kingsrdg@aol.com Wed Jul 15 14:04:39 2009 Received: from imr-m08.mx.aol.com (imr-m08.mx.aol.com [64.12.138.210]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6FI4a4g017417 for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:04:38 -0400 Received: from imo-da03.mx.aol.com (imo-da03.mx.aol.com [205.188.169.201]) by imr-m08.mx.aol.com (v107.10) with ESMTP id RELAYIN1-24a5e1a103b; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:04:00 -0400 Received: from Kingsrdg@aol.com by imo-da03.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v40_r1.5.) id r.c69.4d0e6483 (37140) for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:03:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtprly-md03.mx.aol.com (smtprly-md03.mx.aol.com [64.12.143.156]) by cia-ma03.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMA032-d4374a5e1a0a366; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:03:56 -0400 Received: from webmail-dh43 (webmail-dh43.sim.aol.com [205.188.168.131]) by smtprly-md03.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILSMTPRLYMD036-d4374a5e1a0a366; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:03:54 -0400 References: <20090606153008.GA2614@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <1794190244-1244302307-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-577475374-@bxe1144.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> <20090616172710.GA5505@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBCBF85299655-17DC-281@MBLK-M41.sysops.aol.com> <20090616183300.GA6280@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBD80EB196446-10A4-991@Webmail-mg05.sim.aol.com> <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBD37B45751CDF-2FE0-453C@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> <20090715175119.GA15578@www2.mrbrklyn.com> To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: Check Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:03:54 -0400 X-AOL-IP: 205.188.169.201 In-Reply-To: <20090715175119.GA15578@www2.mrbrklyn.com> X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI MIME-Version: 1.0 From: kingsrdg@aol.com X-MB-Message-Type: User Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--------MB_8CBD38DC0063AC7_2FE0_9D32_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com" X-Mailer: AOL Webmail 43792-STANDARD Received: from 71.249.34.124 by webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com (205.188.168.131) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:03:54 -0400 Message-Id: <8CBD38DBFFF13BC-2FE0-4D2C@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> X-Spam-Flag: NO Status: RO Content-Length: 23593 Lines: 797 ----------MB_8CBD38DC0063AC7_2FE0_9D32_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" call me asap for one minute--Roy -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 1:51 pm Subject: Re: Check On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 11:51:37AM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: Can give you July 27th Monday 12-8pm let me know asap...thank you Checks are in=C2=A0.................. Roy es - I will be there > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm Subject: Re: Check On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: ck is in the store.....come & get it Roy Good Morning I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. But, WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and of course Sundays) for you if you need them. I'm scheduled for ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else= is lear Working: Saturday 7-18 ed 7-22 riday 7-24 ed 7-29 riday 7-31 aturday 8-1 ues 8-4 ed 8-5 ri 8-7 ues 8-11 ed 8-12 ri 8-14 at 8-15 Currently Clear un 7-19, Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 Sun 8-2, Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10 hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way.. Ruben -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm Subject: Re: Check On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: it will be here in the store on wednesday with all the other payroll omorro w? Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: Kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: Ruben Safir Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm Subject: Check On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: Call me asap Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash. Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 To: Cc: Ruben Safir Subject: Re: Hours Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there. Ruben On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > June 5th Sunday is yours > ------Original Message------ > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Subject: Re: Hours > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28 PM > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > Need the following dates..... > > > > May 27th....................................................... . 12 to pm > > > > June 1st, 10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm to 8pm > > > > July 5th Sunday..........................................10 am to= 5 pm > > > > July 8th & 13th............................................. 8 am= to=3D2 08 m > > > > July 22nd, & 27th........................................12 pm to= 8 pm > > >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on the > alternating Mondays. > > Any chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped? > > Have you asked the office about the check? > > > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 > > > Ruben > > > > > Roy > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: kingsrdg@aol.com > > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm > > > > > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a few hours...Please > > > > Roy --call me asap--917-816-3275 > > > > A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy step= s! > > > > -- > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn,= like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -= RI afir 998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS -= RI afir 00 2 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecropper= s to ur wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be amned.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology= have een ttached20at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess yo= u issed hat one." > > =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, li= ke tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -= RI afir 998 http://fairuse .nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to ur wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be amned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology hav= e een ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you issed hat one." =C2=A9 Cop yright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -= RI afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= Safir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is th at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own socie= ty." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be dam= ned.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you issed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Sa= fir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our wn ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own societ= y." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn ed.< ou must be=3D2 0a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our wn ultural heritage -- we ne ed the ability to participate in our own society." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damne= d.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have be= en ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= missed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like= tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safi= r 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society.= " "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned= .< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have bee= n ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you mi= ssed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium ----------MB_8CBD38DC0063AC7_2FE0_9D32_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" call me asap for one minute--Roy



-----Original Message-----
From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com>
To: kingsrdg@aol.com
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
Sent: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 1:51 pm
Subject: Re: Check

On= Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 11:51:37AM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > Can give you July 27th
Monday 12-8pm let me know asap...thank you > > Checks are
in .................. Roy > >


Yes - I will be there

> > > > > > -----Original
Message----- > From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrb= rklyn.com> >
To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc:
ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Sent:
Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm > Subject: Re: Check > > > >
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >  ck is in the store.....come
& get it >  Roy > > Good Morning > I'm commited to
working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. =
 But,
> WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
> and of course Sundays) for you if you need them.  I'm scheduled for

> ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything
el= se is > lear > Working: > Saturday 7-18 > ed	  7-22
> riday   7-24 > ed      7-29 > riday	 7-31 > aturday 8-1
> ues     8-4 > ed      8-5 > ri      8-7 > ues	8-11 >
ed	8-12 > ri	  8-14 > at	    8-15 > Currently Clear >
un 7-19,  Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-= 27,
> ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 > Sun 8-2,  Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun
8-9, Mon 8-10 > > hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way..
> Ruben > >  -----Original Message----- >  From: Ruben Safir
<ruben@mr= brklyn.com>
>  To: kingsrdg@aol.com
>  Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
>  Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm >  Subject: Re: Check
> > > >  On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
it will be here in the store on wednesday >	 with all the other
payroll > > >	omorro > w?	>  Ruben >  > >
>   -----Original Message----- >	 From: Ruben Safir <ruben@m= rbrklyn.com> >
To: Kingsrdg @aol.com >
Cc: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrb=
rklyn.com> >	 Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm >	Subject:
Check > > > >   On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000,
Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
Call me asap >    Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry >
>   Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash.  >
Ruben >   > -----Original Message----- >    From: Ruben Safir
<ruben@= mrbrklyn.com>
> >    Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 >    To: <Kingsrdg@aol.com&g= t; >
Cc: Ruben Safir<ruben@mrb=
rklyn.com> >	  Subject: Re: Hours > > > >
Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there.  > >
Ruben > > >	On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> >    > June 5th Sunday is yours >    > ------Original
Message------ >    > From: Ruben Safir >    > To: kingsrdg@aol.com >    >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com<= /A>
>	> Subject: Re: Hours >	> Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28
PM >    > >	> On M on, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400,
= kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> > Need the following dates.....  >	 > > >    >
> May 27th................................................= .......
>  . 12 to >  pm >    > > >	 > > June 1st,
10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12=
 pm to 8pm
>	> > >	  > > July 5th
Sunday.........................................= .10 am
to 5 pm >	> > >	  > > July 8th &
13th.....................................= ........ 8 am to=3D2
> 08 > m >    > > >	 > > July 22nd, &
27th...................................= .....12 pm to 8 pm >    >
>	> >    >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants
to compromise on=
 the
>	> alternating Mondays.  >    > >	> Any
chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped?  >    >
>	> Have you asked the office about the check?  >	 >
>	> >    > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 >	 >
>	> >    > Ruben >	> >    > >
>	> > Roy >    > > >	> > >
> > -----Original Message----- >    > > From: kingsrdg@aol.c= om >	> >
To: ruben@mrbrkl= yn.com >
> > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm >	 > > >    >
> >    > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a
few hour= s...Please >    > > >    > > Roy --call me
asap--917-816-3275 >    > > >    > > A Good Credit
Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just=
 2 easy steps!
>	> > >	  > >    > -- >    > http://w=
ww.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >	> http://www.= nylxs.com
- Leadership Development in Free Software >	  > >    > So
many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Bro= oklyn, like
>   tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
> afir >	 998 >    > >	  > http://=
fairuse.nylxs.com  DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI >
afir >   00 >  2 >    > >    > "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" >    > >    > "The tremendous problem
we face is that we are becoming share= croppers to > >  ur >
wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our=
 own
>  ociety."	>	> >    > "> I'm an engineer. I
choose the best tool for the job, politics be >  amned.<
>	> You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
techn= ology have >	een >   ttached20at the hip since the 1st
dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I gues= s you >  issed >   hat one."
>	> >    > =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium
>	> >    > >	  > Sent from my Verizon Wireless
BlackBerry > >	-- >    http://www.mr= brklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >
http://www.nylxs=
.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > >	So many
immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn= , like >
tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
> afir >	 998 > >	  http://fairu= se.nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir >   002 > >    "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" > >    "The tremendous problem we face is
that we are becoming sharecropp= ers to our >   wn cultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our=
 own
>  ociety."	> >    "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best
tool for the job, politic= s be damned.< >    You must be a stup
id engineer then, because politcs and technology have been >   ttached
at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
> issed >   hat one."  > >	  =C2=A9 Cop >
yright for the Digital Millennium >	 -- >   ttp://www.mrbr= klyn.com
- Interesting Stuff > >	ttp://www.nylxs.c= om - Leadership Development in Free
Software >	So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn,=
 like
>   tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
> afir >	 998 >   http://fairus= e.nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We
are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir >  002 >	 "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" >   "The tremendous problem we face is th >
at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own >   ultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our own=
 society."
>   "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job,
politics=
 be damned.<
>   ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology=
 have been
>   ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.
I guess=
 you
> issed >   hat one."  >   =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital
Millennium > >  -- >  ttp://www.mrb= rklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >
ttp://www.nylxs.co=
m - Leadership Development in Free Software >  So many immigrant
groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 >  http://fairuse= .nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We
are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 >  "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" >  "The tremendous problem we face is that we
are becoming sharecropper= s to our > wn >  ultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our own so= ciety."  >  ">
I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics=
 be damn
>  ed.< >  ou must be=3D2 > 0a stupid engineer then, because
politcs and technology have been >  ttached at the hip since the 1st
dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	>  =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital
Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrkl= yn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com=  -
Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
> tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world =
 - RI Safir
> 998 > http://fairus= e.nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming
sharecroppers=
 to our
own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our
own soc= iety."  > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for
the job, politics=
 be damned.<
> ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology
hav= e been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient
Egypt.	I guess=
 you missed
> hat one."	> =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >

-- http://www.mrbrklyn.c= om - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com=
 - Leadership Development in Free Software

So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like=

Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world  - RI=
 Safir
1998

http://fairuse.nylxs= .com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002

"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"

"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to=
 our own
cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own
society= ."

"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics
be dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs
and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess you=
 missed
that one."

=C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium

Stay cool with this summer's hottest movies. Moviefone bring= s you trailers, celebrities, movie showtimes and tickets! ----------MB_8CBD38DC0063AC7_2FE0_9D32_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com-- From Kingsrdg@aol.com Wed Jul 15 12:20:48 2009 Received: from imr-m08.mx.aol.com (imr-m08.mx.aol.com [64.12.138.210]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6FGKjMV016128 for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:48 -0400 Received: from imo-ma03.mx.aol.com (imo-ma03.mx.aol.com [64.12.78.138]) by imr-m08.mx.aol.com (v107.10) with ESMTP id RELAYIN1-24a5e01ce22a; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:30 -0400 Received: from Kingsrdg@aol.com by imo-ma03.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v40_r1.5.) id r.cd8.5123f6ad (37167) for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:21 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtprly-dd01.mx.aol.com (smtprly-dd01.mx.aol.com [205.188.84.129]) by cia-ma04.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMA046-d3eb4a5e01c1206; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:21 -0400 Received: from webmail-dh43 (webmail-dh43.sim.aol.com [205.188.168.131]) by smtprly-dd01.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILSMTPRLYDD017-d3eb4a5e01c1206; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:17 -0400 References: <20090606153008.GA2614@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <1794190244-1244302307-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-577475374-@bxe1144.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> <20090616172710.GA5505@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBCBF85299655-17DC-281@MBLK-M41.sysops.aol.com> <20090616183300.GA6280@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBD80EB196446-10A4-991@Webmail-mg05.sim.aol.com> <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: Check Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:17 -0400 X-AOL-IP: 64.12.78.138 In-Reply-To: <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI MIME-Version: 1.0 From: kingsrdg@aol.com X-MB-Message-Type: User Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--------MB_8CBD37F46663B7C_2FE0_90D9_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com" X-Mailer: AOL Webmail 43792-STANDARD Received: from 71.249.34.124 by webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com (205.188.168.131) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:20:17 -0400 Message-Id: <8CBD37F4657ED66-2FE0-4715@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> X-Spam-Flag: NO Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 20283 Lines: 693 ----------MB_8CBD37F46663B7C_2FE0_90D9_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" need you august 5th---august 19---august 24th---sept 2----sept 7---sept 16= ---- sept 21-----sept 30th let me know asap--call me need to talk Roy -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm Subject: Re: Check On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: ck is in the store.....come & get it Roy Good Morning I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. But, WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and of course Sundays) for you if you need them. I'm scheduled for ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else is lear Working: Saturday 7-18 ed 7-22 riday 7-24 ed 7-29 riday 7-31 aturday 8-1 ues 8-4 ed 8-5 ri 8-7 ues 8-11 ed 8-12 ri 8-14 at 8-15 Currently Clear un 7-19, Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 Sun 8-2, Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10 hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way.. Ruben -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm Subject: Re: Check On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: it will be here in the store on wednesday with all the ot her payroll omorrow? Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: Kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: Ruben Safir Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm Subject: Check On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: Call me asap Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash. Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 To: Cc: Ruben Safir Subject: Re: Hours Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there. Ruben On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > June 5th Sunday is yours > ------Original Message------ > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Subject: Re: Hours > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28 PM > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > Need the following dates..... > > > > May 27th....................................................... . 12 to pm > > > > June 1st, 10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm to 8pm > > > > July 5th Sunday..........................................10 am to= 5 pm > > > > July 8th & 13th........................ ..................... 8 am to 8 m > > > > July 22nd, & 27th........................................12 pm to= 8 pm > > >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on the > alternating Mondays. > > Any chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped? > > Have you asked the office about the check? > > > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 > > > Ruben > > > > > Roy > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: kingsrdg@aol.com > > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm > > > > > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a few hours...Please > > > > Roy --call me asap--917-816-3275 > > > > A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps= ! > > > > -- > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn,= like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= afir 00 2 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we a re becoming sharecroppers to ur wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be amned.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology ha= ve een ttached20at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you issed hat one." > > =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= Safir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to our wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Cop yright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.m rbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Sa= fir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is th at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own societ= y." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn= ed.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our wn ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society= ." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be=3D2 0damn ed.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have be= en ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= missed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like= tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safi= r 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society.= " "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned= .< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have bee= n ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you mi= ssed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium ----------MB_8CBD37F46663B7C_2FE0_90D9_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" need you august 5th---august 19---august 24th---sept 2----sept 7---sept 16= ---- sept 21-----sept 30th

let me know asap--call me need to talk


Roy



-----Original Message-----
From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com>
To: kingsrdg@aol.com
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm
Subject: Re: Check

On= Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > ck is in the store.....come &
get it > Roy >

Good Morning

I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month.  But,
FWIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
(and of course Sundays) for you if you need them.  I'm scheduled for
work through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else=
 is
clear

Working:

Saturday 7-18 Wed      7-22 Friday   7-24 Wed	   7-29 Friday	 7-31
Saturday 8-1 Tues     8-4 Wed	   8-5 Fri	8-7 Tues     8-11 Wed
8-12 Fri      8-14 Sat	    8-15

Currently Clear Sun 7-19,  Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25,
Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, Tues 7-28, Thurs 7-30

Sun 8-2,  Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9,20Mon 8-10


Thanks for whatever hours you can throw my way..

Ruben > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrb= rklyn.com> >
To: kingsrdg@aol.com >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
> Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm > Subject: Re: Check
> > > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400,
kingsrdg@aol.com wrote:
>  it will be here in the store on wednesday >  with all the
other payroll > > > omorrow?  > Ruben > > >
>  -----Original Message----- >  From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mr= brklyn.com> >
To: Kingsrdg@aol.com >
Cc: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbr=
klyn.com> >  Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm >  Subject:
Check > > > >  On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000,
Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
Call me asap >   Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry >
>  Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash.  >
Ruben >  > -----Original Message----- >   From: Ruben Safir
<ruben@m= rbrklyn.com>
> >   Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 >   To: <Kingsrdg@aol.com&= gt; >
Cc: Ruben Safir<ruben@mrbr=
klyn.com> >	Subject: Re: Hours > > > >
Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there.  > >
Ruben > > >   On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> >   > June 5th Sunday is yours >	 > ------Original
Message------ >   > From: Ruben Safir >   > To: kingsrdg@aol.com >   >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
>   > Subject: Re: Hours >   > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28
PM >   > >   > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400,
kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> > Need the following dates.....  >	> > >	 >
> May 27th.................................................= ......
> . 12 to > pm >   > > >   > > June 1st, 10th,
15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm=
 to 8pm
>   > > >	> > July 5th
Sunday..........................................= 10 am
to 5 pm >   > > >	> > July 8th &
13th......................................= ....... 8 am
to 8 pm >   > > >	> > July 22nd, &
27th....................................= ....12 pm to 8 pm >   >
=3D0 A>   > >	 >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody
wants to compromise on=
 the
>   > alternating Mondays.  >	 > >   > Any chance
of getting those alternative Mondays flipped?  >   > >   >
Have you asked the office about the check?  >   > >   > >
> Buzz me - 718-715-1771 >   > >   > >   > Ruben
>   > >   > > >   > > Roy >	 > > >
> > >	 > > -----Original Message----- >   > >
From: kingsrdg@aol.co= m >
> > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.=
com >   > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm >   > >
>   > > >	> > are u able to open this thursday?for
(May 14)?a few hours= ...Please >   > > >	> > Roy
--call me asap--917-816-3275 >   > > >   > > A Good
Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2=
 easy steps!
>   > > >	> >   > -- >   > http://ww=
w.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >   > http://www.n=
ylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software >   >
>   > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that
Broo= klyn, like >  tlant is, reaches mythological proportions
in the mind of the world  - RI Safir >  998 >   > >
> http://f=
airuse.nylxs.com  DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir
>  00 > 2 >   > >   > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" >   > >   > "The tremendous problem we face is that
we are becoming sharec= roppers to > ur >  wn cultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our ow= n > ociety."  >   >
>   > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job,
pol= itics be > amned.< >   > You must be a stupid engineer
then, because politcs and techno= logy have > een >  ttached20at
the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
> issed >  hat one."  >   > >   > =C2=A9 Copyright
for the Digital Millennium >   > >   > >   >
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > >   -- >   http://www.mrb=
rklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >	 http://www.nylxs.= com - Leadership Development in
Free Software > >   So many immigrant groups have swept through
our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 >20 >   http://fairus= e.nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir >  002 > >   "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" > >   "The tremendous problem we face is
that we are becoming sharecroppe= rs to our >  wn cultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our ow= n > ociety."  > >
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics=
 be damned.<
>   You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology=
 have been
>  ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	> >   =C2=A9 Cop > yright for the Digital
Millennium >  -- >  ttp://www.mrbrk= lyn.com - Interesting Stuff >  ttp://www.nylxs.co= m -
Leadership Development in Free Software >  So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 >  http://fairuse= .nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We
are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 >  "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" >  "The tremendous problem we face is th >
at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own >  ultural herita ge --
we need the ability to participate in our own society."  >  ">
I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics=
 be damned.<
>  ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology
ha= ve been >  ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient
Egypt.	I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	>  =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital
Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrkl= yn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com=  -
Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
> tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world =
 - RI Safir
> 998 > http://fairuse.= nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming
sharecroppers=
 to our
own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our
own soc= iety."  > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for
the job, politics=
 be damn
> ed.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology hav= e been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess=
 you missed
> hat one."	> =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >20

-- http://www.mrbrklyn.c= om - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com=
 - Leadership Development in Free Software

So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like=

Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world  - RI=
 Safir
1998

http://fairuse.nylxs= .com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002

"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"

"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to=
 our own
cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own
society= ."

"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be
dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology have be= en attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess you=
 missed
that one."

=C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium

Stay cool with this summer's hottest movies. Moviefone bring= s you trailers, celebrities, movie showtimes and tickets! ----------MB_8CBD37F46663B7C_2FE0_90D9_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com-- From Kingsrdg@aol.com Wed Jul 15 12:03:19 2009 Received: from imo-m12.mail.aol.com (imo-m12.mx.aol.com [64.12.143.100]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6FG3Et2015944 for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:03:17 -0400 Received: from imo-ma01.mx.aol.com (imo-ma01.mx.aol.com [64.12.78.136]) by imo-m12.mail.aol.com (v107.10) with ESMTP id RELAYIN1-24a5dfda2e8; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:42 -0400 Received: from Kingsrdg@aol.com by imo-ma01.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v40_r1.5.) id r.be3.49bff706 (37552) for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:45 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtprly-md03.mx.aol.com (smtprly-md03.mx.aol.com [64.12.143.156]) by cia-mb03.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMB031-d4334a5dfd9f346; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:43 -0400 Received: from webmail-dh43 (webmail-dh43.sim.aol.com [205.188.168.131]) by smtprly-md03.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILSMTPRLYMD032-d4334a5dfd9f346; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:39 -0400 References: <20090606153008.GA2614@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <1794190244-1244302307-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-577475374-@bxe1144.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> <20090616172710.GA5505@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBCBF85299655-17DC-281@MBLK-M41.sysops.aol.com> <20090616183300.GA6280@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBD80EB196446-10A4-991@Webmail-mg05.sim.aol.com> <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: Check Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:39 -0400 X-AOL-IP: 64.12.78.136 In-Reply-To: <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI MIME-Version: 1.0 From: kingsrdg@aol.com X-MB-Message-Type: User Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--------MB_8CBD37CCFDEBC1D_2FE0_8E7A_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com" X-Mailer: AOL Webmail 43792-STANDARD Received: from 71.249.34.124 by webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com (205.188.168.131) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:39 -0400 Message-Id: <8CBD37CCFD532B9-2FE0-45EC@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> X-Spam-Flag: NO Status: RO Content-Length: 20069 Lines: 690 ----------MB_8CBD37CCFDEBC1D_2FE0_8E7A_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" need you july 25 saturday & july 26th sunday roy -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm Subject: Re: Check On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: ck is in the store.....come & get it Roy Good Morning I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. But, WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and of course Sundays) for you if you need them. I'm scheduled for ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else is lear Working: Saturday 7-18 ed 7-22 riday 7-24 ed 7-29 riday 7-31 aturday 8-1 ues 8-4 ed 8-5 ri 8-7 ues 8-11 ed 8-12 ri 8-14 at 8-15 Currently Clear un 7-19, Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 Sun 8-2, Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10 hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way.. Ruben -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm Subject: Re: Check On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: it will be here in the store on wednesday with all the other payroll omorrow? Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben S afir To: Kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: Ruben Safir Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm Subject: Check On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: Call me asap Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash. Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 To: Cc: Ruben Safir Subject: Re: Hours Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there. Ruben On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > June 5th Sunday is yours > ------Original Message------ > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Subject: Re: Hours > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28 PM > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > Need the following dates..... > > > > May 27th....................................................... . 12 to pm > > > > June 1st, 10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm to 8pm > > > > July 5th Sunday..........................................10 am to= 5 pm > > > > July 8th & 13th............................................. 8 am= to 8 m > > > > July 22nd, & 27th.................... ....................12 pm to 8 pm > > >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on the > alternating Mondays. > > Any chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped? > > Have you asked the office about the check? > > > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 > > > Ruben > > > > > Roy > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: kingsrdg@aol.com > > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm > > > > > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a few hours...Please > > > > Roy --call me asap--917-816-3275 > > > > A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps= ! > > > > -- > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn,= like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= afir 00 2 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to ur wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participat e in our own ociety." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be amned.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology ha= ve een ttached20at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you issed hat one." > > =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= Safir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to our wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Cop yright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software 20So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Sa= fir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is th at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own societ= y." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn= ed.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our wn ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society= ." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn ed.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have be= en ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you mi= ssed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like= tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safi= r 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society.= " "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned= .< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have bee= n ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you mi= ssed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium ----------MB_8CBD37CCFDEBC1D_2FE0_8E7A_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" need you july 25 saturday & july 26th sunday

roy


-----Original Message-----
From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com>
To: kingsrdg@aol.com
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm
Subject: Re: Check

On= Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > ck is in the store.....come &
get it > Roy >

Good Morning

I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month.  But,
FWIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
(and of course Sundays) for you if you need them.  I'm scheduled for
work through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else=
 is
clear

Working:

Saturday 7-18 Wed      7-22 Friday   7-24 Wed	   7-29 Friday	 7-31
Saturday 8-1 Tues     8-4 Wed	   8-5 Fri	8-7 Tues     8-11 Wed
8-12 Fri      8-14 Sat	    8-15

Currently Clear Sun 7-19,  Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25,
Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, Tues 7-28, Thurs 7-30

Sun 8-2,  Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10


Thanks for whatever hours you can throw my way..

Ruben > > - ----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir
<ruben@mrb= rklyn.com>
> To: kingsrdg@aol.com >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
> Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm > Subject: Re: Check
> > > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400,
kingsrdg@aol.com wrote:
>  it will be here in the store on wednesday >  with all the
other payroll > > > omorrow?  > Ruben > > >
>  -----Original Message----- >  From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mr= brklyn.com> >
To: Kingsrdg@aol.com >
Cc: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbr=
klyn.com> >  Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm >  Subject:
Check > > > >  On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000,
Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote:
>   Call me asap >   Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> >  Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash.
>  Ruben >  > -----Original Message----- >	 From:
Ruben Safir <ruben@m=
rbrklyn.com> > >	Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 >   To:
<Kingsrdg@aol.com>= ; >
Cc: Ruben Safir<ruben@mrbr=
klyn.co m> >	 Subject: Re: Hours > > > >
Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there.  > >
Ruben > > >   On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> >   > June 5th Sunday is yours >	 > ------Original
Message------ >   > From: Ruben Safir >   > To: kingsrdg@aol.com >   >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
>   > Subject: Re: Hours >   > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28
PM >   > >   > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400,
kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> > Need the following dates.....  >	> > >	 >
> May 27th.................................................= ......
> . 12 to > pm >   > > >   > > June 1st, 10th,
15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm=
 to 8pm
>   > > >	> > July 5th
Sunday..........................................= 10 am
to 5 pm >   > > >	> > July 8th &
13th......................................= ....... 8 am
to 8 pm >   > > >	> > July 22nd, &
27th....................................= ....12 pm to 8 pm >   >
>   > >   >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to
compromise on=
 the


>   > alternating Mondays.  >	 > >   > Any chance
of getting those alternative Mondays flipped?  >   > >   >
Have you asked the office about the check?  >   > >   > >
> Buzz me - 718-715-1771 >   > >   > >   > Ruben
>   > >   > > >   > > Roy >	 > > >
> > >	 > > -----Original Message----- >   > >
From: kingsrdg@aol.co= m >
> > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.=
com >   > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm >   > >
>   > > >	> > are u able to open this thursday?for
(May 14)?a few hours= ...Please >   > > >	> > Roy
--call me asap--917-816-3275 >   > > >   > > A Good
Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2=
 easy steps!
>   > > >	> >   > -- >   > http://ww=
w.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >   > http://www.n= ylxs.com
- Leadership Development in Free Software >	 > >   > So many
immigrant groups have swept through our town that Broo= klyn, like >
tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 > 20 > >   > http://f=
airuse.nylxs.com  DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir
>  00 > 2 >   > >   > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" >   > >   > "The tremendous problem we face is that
we are becoming sharec= roppers to > ur >  wn cultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our ow= n > ociety."  >   >
>   > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job,
pol= itics be > amned.< >   > You must be a stupid engineer
then, because politcs and techno= logy have > een >  ttached20at
the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
> issed >  hat one."  >   > >   > =C2=A9 Copyright
for the Digital Millennium >   > >   > >   >
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > >   -- >   http://www.mrb=
rklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >	 http://www.nylxs.= com - Leadership Development in
Free Software > >   So many immigrant groups have swept through
our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 > >   http://fairus= e.nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We
 are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir
>  002 > >   "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > >
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppe= rs
to our >  wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate
in our ow= n > ociety."  > >	"> I'm an engineer. I choose
the best tool for the job, politics=
 be damned.<
>   You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology=
 have been
>  ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	> >   =C2=A9 Cop > yright for the Digital
Millennium >  -- >  ttp://www.mrbrk= lyn.com - Interesting Stuff >  ttp://www.nylxs.co= m -
Leadership Development in Free Software >  So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 >  http://fairuse= .nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We
are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 >  "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" >  "The tremendous problem we face is th >
at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own >  ultural heritage
-- we need the ability to participate in our own so= ciety."  >
"> I'm an engineer. I choo se the best tool for the job, politics be
damned.< >  ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology ha= ve been >  ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty
in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	>  =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital
Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrkl= yn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com=  -
Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
> tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world =
 - RI Safir
> 998 > http://fairuse.= nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming
sharecroppers=
 to our
own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our
own soc= iety."  > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for
the job, politics=
 be damn
> ed.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology hav= e been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess=
 you missed
> hat one."	> =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >

-- http://www.mrbrklyn.c= om - Interesting Stuff


http://www.nylxs.com=
 - Leadership Development in Free Software

So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like=

Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world  - RI=
 Safir
1998

http://fairuse.nylxs= .com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002

"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"

"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to=
 our own
cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own
society= ."

"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be
dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology have be= en attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess you=
 missed
that one."

=C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium

Stay cool with this summer's hottest movies. Moviefone bring= s you trailers, celebrities, movie showtimes and tickets! ----------MB_8CBD37CCFDEBC1D_2FE0_8E7A_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com-- From Kingsrdg@aol.com Wed Jul 15 11:52:48 2009 Received: from imo-d06.mx.aol.com (imo-d06.mx.aol.com [205.188.157.38]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6FFqcJV015776 for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:52:42 -0400 Received: from imo-ma01.mx.aol.com (imo-ma01.mx.aol.com [64.12.78.136]) by imo-d06.mx.aol.com (v107.10) with ESMTP id RELAYIN1-24a5dfb13257; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:51:47 -0400 Received: from Kingsrdg@aol.com by imo-ma01.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v40_r1.5.) id r.cfe.59fb9588 (34897) for ; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:51:41 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtprly-da01.mx.aol.com (smtprly-da01.mx.aol.com [205.188.249.144]) by cia-da01.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILCIADA016-5bb14a5dfb0922a; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:51:41 -0400 Received: from webmail-dh43 (webmail-dh43.sim.aol.com [205.188.168.131]) by smtprly-da01.mx.aol.com (v124.15) with ESMTP id MAILSMTPRLYDA018-5bb14a5dfb0922a; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:51:37 -0400 References: <20090606153008.GA2614@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <1794190244-1244302307-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-577475374-@bxe1144.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> <20090616172710.GA5505@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBCBF85299655-17DC-281@MBLK-M41.sysops.aol.com> <20090616183300.GA6280@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBD80EB196446-10A4-991@Webmail-mg05.sim.aol.com> <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: Check Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:51:37 -0400 X-AOL-IP: 64.12.78.136 In-Reply-To: <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI MIME-Version: 1.0 From: kingsrdg@aol.com X-MB-Message-Type: User Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--------MB_8CBD37B4579E191_2FE0_8D0F_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com" X-Mailer: AOL Webmail 43792-STANDARD Received: from 71.249.34.124 by webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com (205.188.168.131) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:51:37 -0400 Message-Id: <8CBD37B45751CDF-2FE0-453C@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> X-Spam-Flag: NO Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 20326 Lines: 695 ----------MB_8CBD37B4579E191_2FE0_8D0F_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Can give you July 27th Monday 12-8pm let me know asap...thank you Checks are in=C2=A0.................. Roy -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm Subject: Re: Check On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: ck is in the store.....come & get it Roy Good Morning I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. But, WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and of course Sundays) for you if you need them. I'm scheduled for ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else is lear Working: Saturday 7-18 ed 7-22 riday 7-24 ed 7-29 riday 7-31 aturday 8-1 ues 8-4 ed 8-5 ri 8-7 ues 8-11 ed 8-12 ri 8-14 at 8-15 Currently Clear un 7-19, Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 Sun 8-2, Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10 hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way.. Ruben -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm Subject: Re: Check On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: it will be here in the store on wednesday with all the other payroll omorro w? Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir To: Kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: Ruben Safir Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm Subject: Check On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: Call me asap Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash. Ruben > -----Original Message----- From: Ruben Safir Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 To: Cc: Ruben Safir Subject: Re: Hours Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there. Ruben On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > June 5th Sunday is yours > ------Original Message------ > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Subject: Re: Hours > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28 PM > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > Need the following dates..... > > > > May 27th....................................................... . 12 to pm > > > > June 1st, 10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm to 8pm > > > > July 5th Sunday..........................................10 am to= 5 pm > > > > July 8th & 13th............................................. 8 am= to=3D2 08 m > > > > July 22nd, & 27th........................................12 pm to= 8 pm > > >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on the > alternating Mondays. > > Any chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped? > > Have you asked the office about the check? > > > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 > > > Ruben > > > > > Roy > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: kingsrdg@aol.com > > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm > > > > > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a few hours...Please > > > > Roy --call me asap--917-816-3275 > > > > A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps= ! > > > > -- > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn,= like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= afir 00 2 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to ur wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be amned.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology ha= ve een ttached20at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you issed hat one." > > =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI= Safir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to our wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own ociety." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Cop yright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= afir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Sa= fir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is th at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own societ= y." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn= ed.< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have= been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= issed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our wn ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society= ." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damn ed.< ou must be=3D2 0a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you= missed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium -- ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like= tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI= Safir 998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safi= r 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to= our own ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society.= " "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned= .< ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have bee= n ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you mi= ssed hat one." =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium ----------MB_8CBD37B4579E191_2FE0_8D0F_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" Can give you July 27th Monday 12-8pm let me know asap...thank you

Checks are in .................. Roy
=



-----Original Message-----
From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com>
To: kingsrdg@aol.com
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm
Subject: Re: Check

On= Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > ck is in the store.....come &
get it > Roy >

Good Morning

I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month.  But,
FWIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
(and of course Sundays) for you if you need them.  I'm scheduled for
work through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else=
 is
clear

Working:

Saturday 7-18 Wed      7-22 Friday   7-24 Wed	   7-29 Friday	 7-31
Saturday 8-1 Tues     8-4 Wed	   8-5 Fri	8-7 Tues     8-11 Wed
8-12 Fri      8-14 Sat	    8-15

Currently Clear Sun 7-19,  Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25,
Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, Tues 7-28, Thurs 7-30

=3D0 ASun 8-2,	Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10


Thanks for whatever hours you can throw my way..

Ruben > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrb= rklyn.com> >
To: kingsrdg@aol.com >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
> Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm > Subject: Re: Check
> > > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400,
kingsrdg@aol.com wrote:
>  it will be here in the store on wednesday >  with all the
other payroll > > > omorrow?  > Ruben > > >
>  -----Original Message----- >  From: Ruben Safir <ruben@mr= brklyn.com> >
To: Kingsrdg@aol.com >
Cc: Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbr=
klyn.com> >  Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm >  Subject:
Check > > > >  On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000,
Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
Call me asap >   Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry >
>  Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash.  >
Ruben >  > -----Original Message----- >   From: Ruben Safir
<ruben@m= rbrklyn.com>
> >   Date: Sat, 6 Jun=3D2 02009 11:30:08 >   To: <Kingsrdg@aol.com>= ; >   Cc:
Ruben Safir<ruben@mrbr=
klyn.com> >	Subject: Re: Hours > > > >
Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there.  > >
Ruben > > >   On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> >   > June 5th Sunday is yours >	 > ------Original
Message------ >   > From: Ruben Safir >   > To: kingsrdg@aol.com >   >
Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com
>   > Subject: Re: Hours >   > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28
PM >   > >   > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400,
kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: >
> > Need the following dates.....  >	> > >	 >
> May 27th.................................................= ......
> . 12 to > pm >   > > >   > > June 1st, 10th,
15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm=
 to 8pm
>   > > >	> > July 5th
Sunday..........................................= 10 am
to 5 pm >   > > >	> > July 8th &
13th......................................= ....... 8 am to 8 pm >
> > >	 > > July 22nd, & 27th.....................
...................12 pm to 8 pm >	> >   > >	>20Ok -
I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on=
 the
>   > alternating Mondays.  >	 > >   > Any chance
of getting those alternative Mondays flipped?  >   > >   >
Have you asked the office about the check?  >   > >   > >
> Buzz me - 718-715-1771 >   > >   > >   > Ruben
>   > >   > > >   > > Roy >	 > > >
> > >	 > > -----Original Message----- >   > >
From: kingsrdg@aol.co= m >
> > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.=
com >   > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm >   > >
>   > > >	> > are u able to open this thursday?for
(May 14)?a few hours= ...Please >   > > >	> > Roy
--call me asap--917-816-3275 >   > > >   > > A Good
Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2=
 easy steps!
>   > > >	> >   > -- >   > http://ww=
w.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >   > http://www.n= ylxs.com
- Leadership Development in Free Software >	 > >   > So many
immigrant groups have swept=3D2 0through our town that Brooklyn, like >
tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 >   > >   > http://f=
airuse.nylxs.com  DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir
>  00 > 2 >   > >   > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" >   > >   > "The tremendous problem we face is that
we are becoming sharec= roppers to > ur >  wn cultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our ow= n > ociety."  >   >
>   > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job,
pol= itics be > amned.< >   > You must be a stupid engineer
then, because politcs and techno= logy have > een >  ttached20at
the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
> issed >  hat one."  >   > >   > =C2=A9 Copyright
for the Digital Millennium >   > >   > >   >
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > >   -- >   http://www.mrb=
rklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >	 http://www.nylxs.= com - Leadership Development in
Free Software > >   So many immigrant groups have swept through
our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the
mind of=3D2 0the world	- RI Safir >  998 > >	 http://fairus=
e.nylxs.com  DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir >
002 > >	"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > >
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppe= rs
to our >  wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate
in our ow= n > ociety."  > >	"> I'm an engineer. I choose
the best tool for the job, politics=
 be damned.<
>   You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology=
 have been
>  ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	> >   =C2=A9 Cop > yright for the Digital
Millennium >  -- >  ttp://www.mrbrk= lyn.com - Interesting Stuff >  ttp://www.nylxs.co= m -
Leadership Development in Free Software >  So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
>  tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world=
  - RI
Safir >  998 >  http://fairuse= .nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We
are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 >  "Yeah - I write Free
Software...so SUE ME" >  "The tremendous problem we face is th >
at we are becom ing sharecroppers to our own >  ultural heritage --
we need the ability to participate in our own so= ciety."  >  ">
I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics=
 be damned.<
>  ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology
ha= ve been >  ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient
Egypt.	I guess=
 you
missed >  hat one."	>  =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital
Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrkl= yn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com=  -
Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups
have swept through our town that Brooklyn,=
 like
> tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world =
 - RI Safir
> 998 > http://fairuse.= nylxs.com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so
SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming
sharecroppers=
 to our
own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our
own soc= iety."  > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for
the job, politics=
 be damn
> ed.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology hav= e been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess=
 you missed
> hat one."	> ; =C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >

-- http://www.mrbrklyn.c= om - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com=
 - Leadership Development in Free Software

So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like=

Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world  - RI=
 Safir
1998

http://fairuse.nylxs= .com	DRM is THEFT - We are
the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002

"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"

"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to=
 our own
cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own
society= ."

"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be
dam= ned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology have be= en attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt.	I guess you=
 missed
that one."

=C2=A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium

Stay cool with this summer's hottest movies. Moviefone bring= s you trailers, celebrities, movie showtimes and tickets! ----------MB_8CBD37B4579E191_2FE0_8D0F_webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com-- From ruben@mrbrklyn.com Wed Jul 15 13:59:53 2009 Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6FHxo1B017301; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:59:52 -0400 Received: (from ruben@localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id n6FHxoZ2017300; Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:59:50 -0400 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:59:50 -0400 From: Ruben Safir To: kingsrdg@aol.com Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: Check Message-ID: <20090715175950.GB15578@www2.mrbrklyn.com> References: <20090606153008.GA2614@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <1794190244-1244302307-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-577475374-@bxe1144.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> <20090616172710.GA5505@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBCBF85299655-17DC-281@MBLK-M41.sysops.aol.com> <20090616183300.GA6280@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBBD80EB196446-10A4-991@Webmail-mg05.sim.aol.com> <20090713160932.GA13519@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <8CBD37F4657ED66-2FE0-4715@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <8CBD37F4657ED66-2FE0-4715@webmail-dh43.sysops.aol.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i Status: RO Content-Length: 9499 Lines: 305 On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 12:20:17PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > need you august 5th - No ---august 19 - No ---august 24th - Yes ---sept 2 - no ----sept 7 - Yes ---sept 16 - No ---- sept 21 - Yes -----sept 30th - no Yes > > let me know asap--call me need to talk > > > Roy > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 12:09 pm > Subject: Re: Check > > > > On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:36:37PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > ck is in the store.....come & get it > Roy > > Good Morning > I'm commited to working on both the 18th and the 1st of the month. But, > WIW, as it sits now I'm clearing out Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays > and of course Sundays) for you if you need them. I'm scheduled for > ork through mid-August with the following schedule, and everything else is > lear > Working: > Saturday 7-18 > ed 7-22 > riday 7-24 > ed 7-29 > riday 7-31 > aturday 8-1 > ues 8-4 > ed 8-5 > ri 8-7 > ues 8-11 > ed 8-12 > ri 8-14 > at 8-15 > Currently Clear > un 7-19, Mon 7-20, Tues 7-21, Thurs 7-23, Sat 7-25, Sun 7-26, Mon 7-27, > ues 7-28, Thurs 7-30 > Sun 8-2, Mon 8-3, Thur 8-6, Sat 8-8, Sun 8-9, Mon 8-10 > > hanks for whatever hours you can throw my way.. > Ruben > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 2:33 pm > Subject: Re: Check > > > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:32:13PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > it will be here in the store on wednesday > with all the ot > her payroll > > > omorrow? > Ruben > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > To: Kingsrdg@aol.com > Cc: Ruben Safir > Sent: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 1:27 pm > Subject: Check > > > > On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 03:31:49PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > Call me asap > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > Can I pick up a check soon, I'm running short of cash. > Ruben > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ruben Safir > > Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:30:08 > To: > Cc: Ruben Safir > Subject: Re: Hours > > > > Correction - you mean July 5th - and I'll be there. > > Ruben > > > On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 06:55:13PM +0000, Kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > > > June 5th Sunday is yours > > ------Original Message------ > > From: Ruben Safir > > To: kingsrdg@aol.com > > Cc: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > Subject: Re: Hours > > Sent: May 21, 2009 2:28 PM > > > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 04:26:36PM -0400, kingsrdg@aol.com wrote: > > > Need the following dates..... > > > > > > May 27th....................................................... > . 12 to > pm > > > > > > June 1st, 10th, 15th, 24th & 29th.............. 12 pm to 8pm > > > > > > July 5th Sunday..........................................10 am to 5 pm > > > > > > July 8th & 13th........................ > ..................... 8 am to 8 > m > > > > > > July 22nd, & 27th........................................12 pm to 8 pm > > > > > >20Ok - I can give you July 5th - nobody wants to compromise on the > > alternating Mondays. > > > > Any chance of getting those alternative Mondays flipped? > > > > Have you asked the office about the check? > > > > > > Buzz me - 718-715-1771 > > > > > > Ruben > > > > > > > > Roy > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: kingsrdg@aol.com > > > To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com > > > Sent: Tue, 12 May 2009 2:19 pm > > > > > > > > > are u able to open this thursday?for (May 14)?a few hours...Please > > > > > > Roy --call me asap--917-816-3275 > > > > > > A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! > > > > > > > -- > > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI > afir > 998 > > > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI > afir > 00 > 2 > > > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we a > re becoming sharecroppers to > ur > wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own > ociety." > > > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be > amned.< > > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have > een > ttached20at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > > > > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > > > > > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > -- > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI > afir > 998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our > wn cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own > ociety." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > > Cop > yright for the Digital Millennium > -- > ttp://www.m > rbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI > afir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is th > at we are becoming sharecroppers to our own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you > issed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir > 002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our > wn > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be=2 > 0damn > ed.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > > -- > ttp://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > ttp://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like > tlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir > 998 > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own > ultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< > ou must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been > ttached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed > hat one." > Copyright for the Digital Millennium > -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one." Copyright for the Digital Millennium Reader comment on: Future by Formulary Submitted by Ruben Safir, Feb 22, 2007 20:57 Drug markets are not driven by market forces, with or without government interference. As a Pharmacist for over 2 decades, I've seen drug economics from multiple perspectives. If you want to have a market condition for drug prices, and I'm all for that, then all the third party payers need to be cut out of the picture and nothing should be between the patient and the true price of drugs. Nobody in this game wants that. With cholesteral drugs by Pfizer are being sold for over $150 a month and standard diabetic drugs pushing the $300.00 a month threshhold, nobody can afford this. I'm all for making people pay cash on the barrel head for all drugs. That would drive the cost of drugs down. Right now all intermediates are driving drug prices through the ceiling, and why should it be so? Right now the only downward pressure on drug costs is how much money can be extorted from the general public through third party payers who have no interests in controlling costs. They extort on Pharmacy Company against the other to extract a the best kickback, regardless of the costs to the patients. But anything can be an excuse for increasing prices. When Zyprexea sells for nearly $20.00 a tablet and patients who takes the drug are completely dependent upon the drug to even live outside of a hospital – please tell, what exactly is the economic model which can describe the relationship between Lilly and my patients? They're all crooks, the Drug Companies, the Pharmacy Benefit Management Companies, and the Doctors who refuse you consider the costs to any medical decision. As it is now, the costs of drugs are priced strictly according to how close the patient is to death, nothing more or less. In Canarsie we didn't call that not market economics. We called it extortion. Right now, my patients have to decide between healthcare and eating every day. This is worse than rationing. Aside which, frankly healthcare at the VA is far better than the general public. Is it really expected that the VA should give drugs without rationing, anything and any Doctor can think for which they receive tangible benefits from the sales reps, and in which they have no consequence to prescribing for what so ever? Here is another idea. Give each Physician 5 million dollars and so many patients. The Physician pays for everything he prescribes. At the end of the year he can keep whatever he doesn't spend....now that should do it. Ruben Safir Life is a sandlot baseball game. Everyone gets a chance to play. Everyone gets a turn at bat. Everyone gets a chance to be a hero or to fail. But you HAVE to get into the batters box and be ready to swing. grab your ball and glove and lets hit the field! I'm a very smart, artistic, loving man who gets involved with the community and people. I love kids, and I love to help others. I'm a Pharmacist but I do not have a typical Pharmacist personality. I also paint, write, and program computers. I'm the sort of fella who loves women in general. A lot of guys don't (as you girls know). It's not about conquests, but pasion for me. One last thing. I'm interested in a rewarding relationship with a quality women. I know hard a long and serious relationship can be. I'm dedicated to rolling up my sleeves and putting in the work that a loving relationship needs to thrive. You should be equally committed. OK - It's now your turn at bat....Lets see what ya got... Hello I'm not a reformed playboy, But I am interested in knowing if you are really ready for a committed relationship? I'm sure your not desperate, and accomplished. I'm sure you have a fascinating life with deep meaning and satisfaction, one I will envy, and be amazed at. But are you ready to compromise, and to work at a relationship; to give your partner the kind of loving support that you, yourself, would expect from a loving partner, and to form family? Are you ready to sacrifice the ability to jump out for a vacation in Madagascar, because you have obligations at home, to make the 5:30 train because someone is waiting for you, despite a ton of work at the office, to integrate your lover with your friends, knowing that it might not be smooth, and to find contentment in the relationship instead of the full Monty of things you do know which you use to fill that need. A loving and caring relationship is the greatest thing anyone can ever have. But it is a huge risk and before you even take the first step into a relationship, your mind and emotions have to be clear, and prepared. It is an enormous sacrifice, and the older we get, the greater are the stakes because we have so much more invested in our lives. Hopefully we meet someone, and over time we see that we grow together, and achieve meaning in our lives which far exceed what we can achieve separately, because the real adventure for life is within that tiny, but infinite space between lovers and friends. It's not on a mountain in the French Alps, or in a Yacht race in the Hudson. But it exists at the kitchen table in the morning, in a place where we feel emotionally safe and secure, when we would be together, perhaps in silence, punctuated by casual conversation about yesterdays events and todays plans. And this sacred space is achieved only with hard work, compromise, sacrifice and trust. I've dated quite a few women in the last few months, and they are so worked up, so focused on clicking, and check lists. See, I could not tell if I could love you except for at least a few weeks of knowing you. And then I can gage if I'm developing a good bond, a loving bond, and a growing love for you, which is sustainable over the next 50 years. If we met, and we lived and loved well, I would love you more on the day I die, then the day we married. Every day, the good days, and the bad days, my love for you would grow. So, I ask sincerely, are you ready to find a relationship? Because I have no doubt that you are beautiful, independent, accomplished and a whole person, just as you are. Mayor of the World Tough and smart, sure. But who knew about Rudy's big heart? Here's how a very human man taught us superhuman courage BY ERIC POOLEY Time Magazine Man of the Year 2001 Sixteen hours had passed since the Twin Towers crumbled and fell, and people kept telling Rudy Giuliani to get some rest. The indomitable mayor of New York City had spent the day and night holding his town together. He arrived at the World Trade Center just after the second plane hit, watched human beings drop from the sky and--when the south tower imploded--nearly got trapped inside his makeshift command center near the site. Then he led a battered platoon of city officials, reporters and civilians north through the blizzard of ash and smoke, and a detective jimmied open the door to a firehouse so the mayor could revive his government there. Giuliani took to the airwaves to calm and reassure his people, made a few hundred rapid-fire decisions about the security and rescue operations, toured hospitals to comfort the families of the missing and made four more visits to the apocalyptic attack scene. Now, around 2:30 a.m., Giuliani walked into the Upper East Side apartment of Howard Koeppel and his longtime partner, Mark Hsiao. Koeppel, a friend and supporter of Giuliani's, had been lending the mayor a bedroom suite since June, when Giuliani separated from his second wife, Donna Hanover, and moved out of Gracie Mansion. His suit still covered with ash, Giuliani hugged Koeppel, dropped into a chair and turned on the television--actually watching the full, ghastly spectacle for the first time. He left the TV on through the night in case the terrorists struck again, and he parked his muddy boots next to the bed in case he needed to head out fast. But he was not going to be doing any sleeping. Lying in bed, with the skyscrapers exploding over and over again on his TV screen, he pulled out a book--Churchill, the new biography by Roy Jenkins--turned straight to the chapters on World War II and drank in the Prime Minister's words: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. Person of the Year 2001 Complete Coverage Person of the Year 2001: Rudy Giuliani Tough and smart, sure. But who knew about Rudy's big heart? Here's how a very human man taught us superhuman courage 'We're under attack' Near misses, dead phones, last words: an oral history of 9/11 by Giuliani and his aides His Job Is Done — Ours Is Not Outgoing New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani teaches us how to respond to crisis Inside the War Room Relying on instinct, and trusting his team, George W. Bush unleashed a new kind of war against a new kind of enemy — and faster than you might have guessed How Bush Rates Does he measure up to other wartime Presidents? Glory in the Glare On Sept. 11, fire fighter Mike Kehoe was photographed as he rushed up Tower One. It's changed his life in ways he could never imagine | Photo Essay Chat Wrap: TIME's Jim Kelly TIME's managing editor fields a slew of questions about POY Readers' Choice Tens of thousands of readers submit their nominations for POY There is a bright magic at work when one great leader reaches into the past and finds another waiting to guide him. From midmorning on Sept. 11, when Giuliani and fellow New Yorkers were fleeing for their lives, the mayor had been thinking of Churchill. "I was so proud of the people I saw on the street," he says now. "No chaos, but they were frightened and confused, and it seemed to me that they needed to hear from my heart where I thought we were going. I was trying to think, Where can I go for some comparison to this, some lessons about how to handle it? So I started thinking about Churchill, started thinking that we're going to have to rebuild the spirit of the city, and what better example than Churchill and the people of London during the Blitz in 1940, who had to keep up their spirit during this sustained bombing? It was a comforting thought." With the President out of sight for most of that day, Giuliani became the voice of America. Every time he spoke, millions of people felt a little better. His words were full of grief and iron, inspiring New York to inspire the nation. "Tomorrow New York is going to be here," he said. "And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before...I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us." Sept. 11 was the day that Giuliani was supposed to begin the inevitable slide toward irrelevancy. It was primary-election day in the city, when people would go to the polls to begin choosing his successor. After two terms, his place in history seemed secure: great mayor, not-so-great guy. The first Republican to run the town in a generation, he had restored New York's spirit, cutting crime by two-thirds, moving 691,000 people off the welfare rolls, boosting property values and incomes in neighborhoods rich and poor, redeveloping great swaths of the city. But great swaths of the city were sick of him. People were tired of his Vesuvian temper and constant battles--against his political enemies, against some of his own appointees, against the media and city-funded museums, against black leaders and street vendors and jaywalkers and finally even against his own wife. His marriage to television personality Donna Hanover was a war: ugly headlines, dueling press conferences. Giuliani's girlfriend, a pharmaceutical-sales manager named Judith Nathan, had helped him get through a battle against prostate cancer, and his struggle touched off a wave of concern and appreciation for him. But most New Yorkers seemed ready for Rudy and Judi to leave the stage together and melt into the crowd. Fate had another idea. When the day of infamy came, Giuliani seized it as if he had been waiting for it all his life, taking on half a dozen critical roles and performing each masterfully. Improvising on the fly, he became America's homeland-security boss, giving calm, informative briefings about the attacks and the extraordinary response. He was the gutsy decision maker, balancing security against symbolism, overruling those who wanted to keep the city buttoned up tight, pushing key institutions--from the New York Stock Exchange to Major League Baseball--to reopen and prove that New Yorkers were getting on with life. He was the crisis manager, bringing together scores of major players from city, state and federal governments for marathon daily meetings that got everyone working together. And he was the consoler in chief, strong enough to let his voice brim with pain, compassion and love. When he said "the number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear," he showed a side of himself most people had never seen. Giuliani's performance ensures that he will be remembered as the greatest mayor in the city's history, eclipsing even his hero, Fiorello La Guardia, who guided Gotham through the Great Depression. Giuliani's eloquence under fire has made him a global symbol of healing and defiance. World leaders from Vladimir Putin to Nelson Mandela to Tony Blair have come to New York to tour ground zero by his side. French President Jacques Chirac dubbed him "Rudy the Rock." As Jenkins, author of the biography that inspired Giuliani on the night of Sept. 11, told TIME, "What Giuliani succeeded in doing is what Churchill succeeded in doing in the dreadful summer of 1940: he managed to create an illusion that we were bound to win." The Glorious Bluff When he thinks about Churchill's wartime words, Giuliani now says, "I wonder how much of it was bluff." Three months to the day since the towers fell, he is riding with Time in his big tan SUV as it steers through the maze of cement barricades, switchbacks and checkpoints that lead into the heart of ground zero. "A lot of it had to be bluff," he says. "Churchill could not have known England was going to prevail. He hoped it, but there was no way he could know." He is asked the obvious question: How much of his confidence on Sept. 11 was bluff? "Some," he says matter-of-factly. "Look, in a crisis you have to be optimistic. When I said the spirit of the city would be stronger, I didn't know that. I just hoped it. There are parts of you that say, Maybe we're not going to get through this." He pauses. "You don't listen to them." He climbs out of the SUV and looks around. "It's still amazing," he says. From here on West Street, inside the high fences and past the tourist throngs, ground zero looks like a huge, patriotic construction site--flags on the cranes, flags on the hard hats, flags on the huge white domes that house the mess hall and the EPA decontamination stalls. But your eye finds the last standing chunk of the north-tower facade (it would be removed in a few days) and the stump of twisted, melted steel that used to be 6 World Trade Center and the pit where corpses are still being recovered, and then the place looks like what it is--a mass grave. "This is the most emotional spot for me," Giuliani says, waving a hand in the street, "because this is where I was that morning." He points straight overhead, where the north tower used to be. "I looked up and saw a man jump out--above the fire, must have been at least 100 stories--and my eye followed him, almost transfixed, all the way down. He hit the top of that building," he says, pointing to what's left of 6 WTC. "Over there"--he gestures a few feet down the street--"is where the guys had their command post set up." The guys were the fire department's top brass: Chief of Department Pete Ganci, Commissioner Tommy Von Essen, First Deputy Commissioner Bill Feehan and Special Operations Chief Ray Downey. All except Von Essen are now dead. Giuliani takes three quick steps up the street. "I saw Father Judge here." Mychal Judge, the fire department chaplain, was heading toward the towers when he passed Giuliani. "I reached across and grabbed his hand and said what I always said to him, 'Pray for us, Father.' He smiled--he always had a big, confident smile--and said, 'I always do.' I followed him with my eyes, and he walked right down there." He points to the vanished north tower. Judge was killed by falling debris minutes later, either while administering last rites to a victim or immediately after. "You relive it," Giuliani says now. "You can't help but relive it." "'Scuse me, Mayor, would you sign my hat?" The workman is extremely big, extremely dirty and just a little bit awestruck. He holds out a scuffed white hard hat, and Giuliani smiles. "I would love to," the mayor says, and by the time he has done so, 10 more guys with 10 more hats are waiting in line. It's like this everywhere Giuliani goes these days. The mayor, who leaves office Jan. 1, draws one long, loud thank-you from the people of his city. "Rudy, way to go!" calls Dwayne Dent, 37, an African-American ironworker. "You're about the greatest mayor ever, ain'tcha?" Giuliani gives him a melancholy smile. It's nice to be loved, but at times the cost is, as he predicted, more than he can bear. The Old Rudy That is a moronic question," Giuliani hisses. "That is an absolutely moronic question." The mayor is standing in the street on a dusty hillside in Gilo, a West Jerusalem enclave where 21 Israelis have been hit by Palestinian mortar and sniper fire in the past 15 months. Giuliani is in Israel to show his support after the spate of suicide bombings--and to soak up adulation everywhere he goes--but right now he's sniping at a reporter who has just asked him whether he is frightened to be here. "Moronic!" the mayor repeats. The reporter says he has a right to ask the question. "And I have a right to point out that it is an absolutely moronic question!" Giuliani snaps. "If I were scared, I wouldn't be here." He stomps off. It's good to see the old Rudy again. All the grieving, all the gratitude, all the valedictory warmth that have been showering the mayor cannot obscure his pugilist's heart. The old Rudy resurfaced on Sept. 22, when Giuliani fired a counterterrorism specialist named Jerry Hauer--whom he had recruited just eight days earlier--because Hauer appeared at a press conference with a Democratic rival. The old Rudy showed up again on Oct. 11, when the mayor returned a $10 million check from Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, who had suggested that America should rethink its support for Israel. And he was seen frequently all that month as Giuliani made a bid to extend his term as mayor and slapped down those who questioned the purity of his motives. If he had found a way to get on the ballot, he would have won in a landslide. That's because Giuliani had saved New York twice: the first time, in the mid-1990s, through sheer toughness--asserting control over a crime-ridden city--and the second time, after Sept. 11, through a mix of toughness and soul. Each time, he gave the city the part of him it needed. Giuliani has spent his adult life searching for missions impossible enough to suit his extravagant sense of self. A child of Brooklyn who was raised in a family of fire fighters, cops and criminals--five uncles in the uniformed services, an ex-con father and a Mob-connected uncle who ran a loan-sharking operation--he chose the path of righteousness and turned his life into a war against evil as he defined it. As a U.S. Attorney in New York during the 1980s, Giuliani was perhaps the most effective prosecutor in the country, locking up Mafia bosses, crooked politicians and Wall Street inside traders, though his vindictiveness and thirst for publicity led to troubling excesses. In 1987, for instance, his men arrested two stockbrokers in their offices, then handcuffed and perp-walked them past the TV cameras; later he quietly dropped the charges against them. But by 1993, when Giuliani made his second run for mayor--four years before, he lost to Democrat David Dinkins, the first African American to win the job--a tough prosecutor seemed to be just what the city needed. More than a million New Yorkers were on welfare, violent crime and crack cocaine had ravaged whole neighborhoods, and taxes and unemployment were sky-high. The squeegee pest was the city's mascot. The windows of parked cars were adorned with pathetic little signs that told thieves there was NO RADIO left to steal inside. It was fashionable to dismiss the place as ungovernable, and when candidate Giuliani gave speeches decrying that notion, he of course used Churchill to do it. Imagine, Giuliani said, if while the bombs were falling on London during the Battle of Britain, Churchill had said, "You know, this is really beyond our control. We can't do much about this." That, he argued, is what New York's leaders were doing: abdicating in the face of grave threats. Candidate Giuliani eventually dropped the comparison because it seemed too dramatic, even to him. But after he defeated Dinkins, Mayor Giuliani made good on its implied promise. He did away with New York's traditional politics of soft and ineffectual symbolism--empathizing about problems but not fixing them--and got to work. His first police commissioner, William Bratton, came on the scene sounding like Churchill too. ("We will fight for every street. We will fight for every borough.") Using computer-mapping techniques to pinpoint crime hot spots, Bratton's N.Y.P.D. reduced serious crime by more than one-third and murder by almost half in just two years. But there was room in town for only one Churchill. Giuliani forced Bratton to resign, in large part because the commissioner hogged too many headlines. Giuliani felt vindicated when crime kept dropping like a stone under the loyalists he chose to succeed Bratton. And the public--shocked and delighted that the streets were actually safer and cleaner--didn't care how it happened. If Giuliani picked fights big and small, if he purged government of those he deemed insufficiently loyal, so be it. "People didn't elect me to be a conciliator. If they just wanted a nice guy, they would have stayed with Dinkins," Giuliani says now. "They wanted someone who was going to change this place. How do you expect me to change it if I don't fight with somebody? You don't change ingrained human behavior without confrontation, turmoil, anger." He governed by hammering everyone else into submission, but in areas where that strategy was ineffective, such as reform of the city schools, he failed to make improvements. "The Boss," as his aides call him, inspired extraordinary loyalty and repaid it. He elevated a streetwise N.Y.P.D. detective named Bernard Kerik through the ranks of city government, eventually making him corrections commissioner and then police commissioner. Kerik, who compares entering Giuliani's inner circle to becoming "a made man in a Mafia family," reduced violence by 95% in the city jails and kept crime on the decline in New York this year even as it spiked around the country. "Nobody believed Giuliani had a heart," Kerik says. "He's not supposed to have a heart. He's an animal, he's obnoxious, he's arrogant. But you know what? He gets it done. Behind getting it done, he has a tremendously huge heart, but you're not going to succeed in New York City by being a sweetie. Giuliani has no gray areas--good or bad, right or wrong, end of story. That's the way he is. You don't like it, f___ you." The city's black and Latino leaders did not like it. Focused on enforcing "one standard" for all New Yorkers (and obsessed with marginalizing activists like the Rev. Al Sharpton, whom Giuliani saw as a racial opportunist), Giuliani rarely reached out to any minority leaders. They complained that his aggressive cops were practicing racial profiling, stopping and frisking people because of their race. The Clinton Justice Department investigated the charge and decided not to bring a racial-discrimination case against the N.Y.P.D., but people believed their eyes, not the numbers. And though police shootings declined by 40% under Giuliani, minorities did not find comfort in that because of three awful brutality cases that, for many people, came to define the Giuliani years. Losing the Peace In 1997 a haitian man named Abner Louima was sodomized with a mop handle by a cop in a Brooklyn-precinct bathroom. Two years later, an unarmed street peddler named Amadou Diallo was killed when police in the Bronx fired 41 shots at him in a dark vestibule. And a year after that, an unarmed security guard named Patrick Dorismond, who had been trying to hail a cab outside a midtown bar, was shot to death after a scuffle with undercover cops. Giuliani denounced the cops who brutalized Louima but defiantly backed those who killed Diallo and Dorismond. (In those cases, juries cleared the officers of wrongdoing.) After Dorismond was killed, Giuliani's instinct to defend the police led him to attack the unarmed victim; the mayor authorized release of Dorismond's juvenile records to "prove" his propensity for violence. The dead, Giuliani argued, waive their right to privacy. Even old friends and supporters were appalled. The man who had saved New York City saw his job-approval rating drop to 32%. New York City was getting better, but the mayor seemed to be getting worse. When New York magazine launched an ad campaign calling itself "Possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for," Giuliani had the ads yanked from the sides of city buses. The magazine sued and won. With the criminals on the run, the mayor was again resembling Churchill, a wartime leader too obstreperous to win the peace. Giuliani launched a "civility campaign" against jaywalkers, street vendors and noisy car alarms and a crusade against publicly funded art that offended his moral sensibilities. But the pose seemed hypocritical at best when Giuliani, whose wife had not been seen at City Hall in years, began making the rounds with Judi Nathan, a stylish New Yorker with wide, liquid eyes. The clash between the mayor's lifestyle and his policies became a pop-culture target, deftly skewered by Saturday Night Live comedian Tina Fey. "New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is once again expressing his outrage at an art exhibit, this time at a painting in which Jesus is depicted as a naked woman," Fey deadpanned. "Said the mayor: 'This trash is not the sort of thing that I want to look at when I go to the museum with my mistress.'" In the spring of 2000, Giuliani was edging toward a political move that he did not appear interested in making: running against Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. That's when his carefully controlled, highly effective life went off the rails. He had been seeing Nathan since at least the previous year, but now the relationship exploded into the headlines. Donna Hanover later won a court order to prevent Nathan from attending city functions held at Gracie Mansion. Giuliani's divorce lawyer, Raoul Felder, counterattacked, calling Hanover an "uncaring mother" with "twisted motives." One of Giuliani's biographers, Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett, broke the news of Giuliani's father's criminal past. Finally, in April 2000, Giuliani announced that he had received a diagnosis of prostate cancer, the disease that had killed his father. He withdrew from the Senate race and, with his handling of the Diallo and Dorismond cases still fresh in his mind, pledged to devote his remaining 18 months in office to breaking down "some of the barriers that maybe I placed" between him and minority communities. "I don't know exactly how you do that," he said, "but I'm going to try very hard." The Barriers Fall In the end it was Giuliani's performance on and after Sept. 11 that broke down those barriers, demonstrating once and for all how much he cared about New Yorkers, even if he had not always been able to show it. After Sept. 11, a good many Rudy watchers assumed he had changed--a rigid, self-righteous man had morphed into a big-hearted empath--but Giuliani's friends and aides say his warm side has always been there. Outsiders just couldn't see it. Countless times in the past eight years, he has sat at the bedside of an injured or dying cop or fire fighter, gently broken the awful news to the family, even remembered a widow's name years later. The public never saw these moments because the press was not there. Giuliani, so famously thirsty for attention, did away with the custom of holding mayoral press conferences at police funerals; he felt it was unseemly. "I've known him since he was 13. He's a hugger and a kisser. He always has been," says Monsignor Alan Placa, a Long Island cleric who remains one of the mayor's closest friends. "If the story is that he's changed, it's just the wrong story." The story is how and why he was finally able to show the world what's inside him. It is now customary to say Sept. 11 put life into perspective and swept away the things that don't matter, and that is true for Giuliani. "All those little fights we have," he said six days after the towers fell, "they don't mean anything." That was a startling admission. Those "little fights" had defined his mayoralty. It was both inevitable and a bit sad that it took a disaster of this magnitude to bring out the best in him. Suddenly the whole world saw the New York City police and fire departments the way Giuliani had always seen them. And the whole world saw Giuliani the way only his closest friends had seen him. "I spent my first 7 3/4 years as mayor living out my father's advice that it's better to be respected than loved," he says. "But I had forgotten the last part of what he used to say: 'Eventually, you will love me.'" The mayor has aged in the past year, but it suits him. His hair is grayer, thinner but still defiantly combed over. Small oval eyeglasses have softened his look; cancer and exploding skyscrapers have softened it more. "The whole experience continues to be very strange," he says one afternoon in his office at City Hall, where he is packing up eight years' worth of files, photos, baseball bats and Yankees caps, "because it is very personal, but it's also part of my public duty as mayor to deal with it." On Sept. 11, he had been at his makeshift command post in the Engine 24 firehouse just a few minutes when his executive assistant of 18 years, Beth Petrone-Hatton, walked in. In 1998 the mayor officiated at her wedding to Terry Hatton, a dashing Rescue 1 captain who had become part of Giuliani's extended family at City Hall. Now Giuliani asked her, "Terry was working?" "Yes, he's gone." Giuliani tried to say it was too soon to know, but she cut him off. "He's gone," she repeated. Then she got to work, organizing Giuliani's situation at the firehouse. People were scared to look her in the eye, but the ones who did saw depths of pain and strength they won't soon forget. Petrone-Hatton saw the same thing in her boss. "He was probably the most 'on' I have ever seen him," she says. "On the one hand, he was devastated, destroyed. He knew he'd lost a lot of friends. But he also knew he had to calm the city down." He started by getting solid information out, and then he went to inspiration. "It was so well orchestrated that you would have thought he had prepared for it forever," Petrone-Hatton says. In a sense, he had. In the next few days and weeks, Giuliani worked around the clock to pull his city back together, yet he found time for Petrone-Hatton. While managing everything from the logistics of the recovery effort to the symbolism of mass mourning to the reopening of the New York Stock Exchange when others were still worried that the market would tank, Giuliani took the time to track down Hatton's dental records and to go to his firehouse to pick up his razor for a DNA sample. Eulogizing Hatton, Giuliani described him as "the kind of man I would like my son to grow up and become." On Sept. 21, when Petrone-Hatton got the unexpected news that she was pregnant, she made three phone calls--to Hatton's parents, to her parents and to Giuliani. "There's something miraculous," she told him. "I'm having a baby." The mayor started "hooting and howling," she says. "That's the best news I've had," he told her. A week later, Petrone-Hatton was at her doctor's office listening to the baby's heartbeat for the first time, when the mayor summoned her. She was driven to the rectory at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Giuliani was attending a memorial service. He sat with her and gently told her that Hatton's remains had been found. She said she wanted to be taken to them right away. "I've already been," Giuliani said. He had identified Hatton so his friend would not have to. "You don't want to see him like this," he said. Agents of Change People ask, 'have you changed a lot since 9/11?'" Giuliani says. "Actually, I changed more from the prostate cancer. Having to deal with that had a bigger impact and, I think, gave me more wisdom about the importance of life, the lack of control you have over death. It removed some of the fear of death." His cancer treatment consumed the last six months of 2000. After intense study and consultation--with immeasurable help from Nathan, a trained nurse in her mid-40s--Giuliani chose a course of treatment involving radioactive-seed implantation and radiation rather than surgery. Just hours after the implantation operation on Sept. 19, 2000, Giuliani held a press conference. The next day he marched in a parade. But two weeks later, he felt "as bad as I had ever felt"--the seeds were starting to work. In November he began six weeks of daily external radiation treatments, and they turned out to be "very, very tough weeks"--full of nausea, hot flashes, exhaustion. He concealed his condition as best he could, though he sometimes had to excuse himself from meetings or leave the podium during a press conference. And most days he took a long nap. Nathan, who is divorced and has a teenage daughter, was at his side through it all. Giuliani says he "had all kinds of questions about the cancer--are you getting better, are these good symptoms or bad symptoms?--and Judith did all the research. Looked it all up. Talked to the doctors. Helped me through it." Nathan recently became managing director of a philanthropic consulting firm called Changing Our World Inc., and she moves easily in Giuliani's supercharged universe. Bump into her late at night in the galley of Donald Trump's private 727, which is carrying the mayor and his entourage to Israel, and she waves a cup of coffee and jokes that a need for caffeine is "one of the many things cops and nurses have in common." With Donna Hanover and Giuliani's two children, Caroline, 12, and Andrew, 15, still living in Gracie Mansion, Nathan has been functioning as a kind of shadow First Lady--attending memorial services but not sitting with the mayor; keeping a low public profile while playing a significant role behind the scenes. She helped organize construction of the Family Center on Pier 94 in New York, leading 3,000 volunteers who, in just 36 hours, turned 125,000 sq. ft. of raw space into what she calls "a warm place where the survivors could grieve in dignity and get the help they needed." Giuliani is now cancer free, and Nathan believes that God spared him so he would be able to lead on Sept. 11. The timing of his ordeals also makes the mayor think about God's hand. Had the terrorists struck one year earlier, "when I was going through daily radiation, I couldn't have done it." Had he not had the cancer, he probably would have stayed in the Senate race and might have won--and thus would not have been on the scene to help his city get through the crisis. And if not for the cancer, he says, "I would have dealt with Sept. 11 effectively, but not as effectively. I would not have been as peaceful about it." Yet Giuliani still wrestles mightily with his faith, with the question of whether events happen randomly or according to a divine plan. "I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I really admire the widows who have this perfect, simple religious faith. I go back and forth about it. Sometimes I resolve it as destiny--it just happens, you have no control over it, there's no reason to get too afraid of it because you have to go ahead and do what you have to do. And then sometimes I have this feeling that it is part of God's plan, allowing us to work out who we are as human beings. He gives people the room to make choices like the ones the heroes made, the people that saved other people, or the evil choices that were also made." He won't say he was "chosen" to lead the city at this moment. "Whatever my belief in God, I don't believe he enters into politics," he says. But the more he thinks about it, the more he accepts that "there must be some plan in all of it. Philosophically and theologically, the way I look at all of this is that if there are things beyond human rationality, then we're only going to have little glimpses of it. And as for my own personal odyssey, it worked out better for me and better for the city that all those things happened." Monsignor Placa sums up the changes in his friend this way: "The cancer made him face his mortality. Sept. 11 made him face his immortality." Together the two pushed him to recognize that history forgets the petty fights but not the acts of true leadership--and that he should do the same. "I think Rudy's gotten the idea that what he does will either be part of the triviality that will be forgotten or else it will become part of the story of how a great people were able to deal with this." Giuliani has attended close to 200 funerals, services and wakes for police officers, fire fighters and emergency workers who died on Sept. 11, and each time he has offered a variation on the theme that "what could have destroyed us made us stronger," thanks to the heroes "who turned the worst attack on American soil into the most successful rescue operation in American history," with perhaps 20,000 civilian lives saved. At the police funerals, he points out that Sept. 11 succeeded in silencing the N.Y.P.D.'s critics and laments that it cost so many lives to do so. Giuliani had hoped to attend services for all 23 cops and 343 fire fighters lost that day, but that was impossible. He had felt that attending the services might help the survivors, show them how much the city honored their loss. He hadn't realized how much the funerals would help him. Consoler in Chief It was on the night of Sept. 23 that Giuliani figured out how important the funerals were to him. That afternoon 20,000 gathered for a prayer service at Yankee Stadium, the first major public event after the attack and another huge security challenge for his police force. Giuliani found the service enormously draining. He had barely slept since the 11th--he needs only three or four hours a night but wasn't getting even that--and it was catching up with him. He spoke briefly, but mostly he sat near second base, looking into the sea of grieving faces--the families of the dead and missing cops and fire fighters who filled the infield, sobbing and clutching photographs of their lost loved ones. He had met many of them at the Family Center or during gatherings over the past 12 days, so "in some cases I could put them together with a name," he recalls. "In some cases I couldn't but remembered the faces. And listening to the beautiful music and the religious leaders, and Bette Midler singing the hero song [BRACKET {Wind Beneath My Wings}], I just lost it." When it was over, he was supposed to take a helicopter to a funeral service in Far Rockaway, out at the end of Queens. But he was a wreck, so Nathan and others urged him to take the night off. Instead, he decided to ride his SUV to Rockaway, catnap in the backseat, "and if I'm still too tired, I'll head home." As the SUV entered Rockaway after a 45-minute ride, the mayor was still exhausted. "I was sort of waking up," he says. "I said to myself, 'I shouldn't have come. I don't have the energy to do this.'" But he pulled himself out of the SUV anyway. "Suddenly it felt like I was in heaven," he says. "There were all these people in the field, hundreds of people, and they're all holding candles. Many of them I knew because I've spent a lot of time in Rockaway. And I was looking at them--they're such beautiful people, such strong, strong people--and I realized that Rockaway had been hit hard--lots of police officers, fire fighters and workers in the financial community, from executives to secretaries and stock boys. When I gave my talk, I said, 'I was very tired when I got here, but I have a great deal of energy now because of you.' I realized that one of the ways I could get through this is by going to services. They make me feel useful. They're heartbreaking but inspirational. I see the families and think, If they can do it, you can do it." The next morning he was back in Rockaway, at the very same church, for the first of five more funerals that day. He attended eight more services there--and then on the morning of Nov. 12 he was there again, when American Flight 587 crashed into the neighborhood, killing 265 people. Wherever he went, Giuliani took to leading each congregation in a whooping, foot-stomping ovation for its fallen hero. And his eulogies--though largely unrecorded because he does not tell the press which services he plans to attend--became an ever evolving meditation on the nature of honor, courage, sacrifice and loss. "I would like to say just a word to the children," the mayor tells the congregation at St. William the Abbot Catholic Church, an hour outside the city, in Seaford, N.Y., the kind of modest, comfortable Long Island suburb that was home to so many of the cops and fire fighters who died on Sept. 11. Giuliani has come to Seaford to praise Sgt. Timothy Roy, 36, a fun-loving, playfully boastful cop who was off duty on Sept. 11 but heard that a plane had struck the Trade Center, raced to the site and was last seen helping people escape from the south tower, the first to collapse. This morning Giuliani has reshuffled his schedule--moving his tour of ground zero with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon--so he can be here. Like Rudy, Timmy Roy came from a family of cops and fire fighters, and Giuliani wants to honor that. But now he has a message for Roy's three children, a message he sends to the children of dead heroes at every service he attends. "Nobody can take your father from you," he says. "He is part of you. He helped make you. He and your mom are an integral part of who you are. All the wonderful things that everybody...for the rest of your life tells you about your dad, about how brave he was, what a decent man he was, how strong he was, how sensitive he was to the needs of people--all those things are inside you. They're all part of you. People will say the same things about you 10, 15, 20, 25 years from now." The whole place is weeping, riding the mayor's words as he brings the message home. "I can just see it in your family. This is a great family. He's with you--nobody can take him away from you. You have something lots of children don't have. You have the absolute, certain knowledge that your dad was a great man." Father and Son By conventional standards, Harold Giuliani was not a great man. In 1934, at age 26, he was arrested for robbing a milkman at gunpoint in the vestibule of a Manhattan apartment building. A court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed him as an "aggressive, egocentric type." He served a year and a half, then went to work as a bartender and enforcer for his brother-in-law Leo D'Avanzo's loan-sharking operation, according to court documents and eyewitness accounts uncovered by Giuliani biographer Barrett. In 1944, Harold's wife Helen, a smart, serious-minded woman (still living but suffering from senility), gave birth to Rudy, their only child. Giuliani says he knew only a little of his father's history. "I knew parts of it, but it was always a big secret and very shadowy. I knew he had gotten into trouble as a young man, but I never knew exactly what it was" until Barrett broke the story in 2000. "As I found out more about what his history was and what he had done," he says, emotion swamping his syntax, "having been his son, the way he brought me up, I have this tremendous respect for him." Bad guy, good dad--Harold Giuliani did everything he could to ensure that his son didn't end up the way he did. "I'd like to find a better way to describe it, but I have to do it in psychological terms," Giuliani says. "My father compensated through me. In a very exaggerated way, he made sure that I didn't repeat his mistakes in my life--which I thank him for, because it worked out." To separate his boy from the outlaw wing of the family, Harold moved his family from Brooklyn to the Long Island community of Garden City, N.Y., when Rudy was seven. "He would say over and over, 'You can't take anything that's not yours. You can't steal. Never lie, never steal.' As a child and even as a young adult, I thought, What does he keep doing this for? I'm not going to steal anything." Harold had a good head for figures and did tax returns for people in the family. "He'd make out returns until 3 or 4 in the morning," Giuliani says, "and I'd ask him, 'Don't you hate doing this?' He would give me this long lecture: 'It's a great privilege to pay your taxes, and you should overpay your taxes'--which I do, actually--'and just think of all those people who would like to come to America just to have the privilege to pay taxes. Better pay every single penny of them. And better make sure you don't take anything that doesn't belong to you.' As I got older, I started to realize what it was about. It was extremely conscious, well thought out. And very overdone." Giuliani's closest friends from those days, Placa and Peter Powers, who went on to become Giuliani's campaign manager and first deputy mayor, both say they had no idea about the criminal ties. "His parents brought him up with strong values," says Powers. "The dinner-table talk with his aunts and uncles was always heated politics--his Uncle Rudy and I were Goldwater conservatives, and the rest were liberals. Rudy was a Kennedy Democrat." "From the time I was very young, bravery and courage inspired me," Giuliani says. "My father had great physical courage. He had been a boxer. I read John Kennedy's Profiles in Courage when I was young. My Uncle Rudy, my father's youngest brother, was a police officer for 24 years. My mother's second youngest brother, Edward, was a captain in the fire department, decorated four or five times. She had three other brothers who were police officers. So I grew up with uniforms all around me and their stories of heroism." But once past the age of eight, Giuliani never thought about becoming a cop. "I wanted to be a priest, I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be an Air Force pilot." He was a chubby kid. He didn't get the best grades. But he was an organizer, a class politician, shrewd from an early age. "Giuliani was always around, always leading something, always looking ahead," says Powers. He developed an abiding interest in opera--getting Placa and Powers to form a club and travel into Manhattan for performances of the Metropolitan Opera--but he couldn't sing. He got into law enforcement "kind of as an afterthought," he says. After earning a degree at Manhattan College, he and Powers enrolled together at New York University School of Law, and Giuliani ended up as a clerk to federal judge Lloyd MacMahon. The judge encouraged him to join the U.S. Attorney's office, and in 1970 Giuliani took his advice. Giuliani's ascent began in earnest three years after he arrived when, at 29, he was put in charge of the police-corruption cases springing from the Knapp Commission, an era romanticized in the book and movie Prince of the City. He did a stint in private practice and went to Washington for three years as the No. 3 man in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department. (All told, he has spent nine years of his career practicing law outside government.) In 1983 Giuliani was named U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. By then his father had withered and died, a victim of prostate cancer. The last conversation Giuliani had with his father, he says, "was about courage and fear. I said to him, 'Were you ever afraid of anything?' He said to me, 'Always.' He said, 'Courage is being afraid but then doing what you have to do anyway.'" The Real World Giuliani's life reflected his dying father's words. Though the mayor's friend Peter Powers thinks Giuliani "was born without a fear gene," Rudy says it isn't so. On Sept. 11, when the first tower collapsed and he and his aides were stuck inside a building near the site, "there were times I was afraid. Everybody was. But the concentration was on. If I don't do what I have to do, everything falls apart." They tried to escape through the basement, but the doors were locked. "That's when I kept saying to myself, You've got to keep your head, and you've just got to keep thinking, What's the most sensible thing to do next? Something I learned a long time ago, also from my father, is that the more emotional things get, the calmer you have to become to figure your way out. Those things have become a matter of instinct for me at 57 years old. I didn't have to invent them." When Giuliani hears people talking about how Americans have been living in "a different world" since Sept. 11, he disagrees. "We're not in a different world," he says. "It's the same world as before, except now we understand it better. The threat and danger were there, but now we recognize it. So it's probably a safer world now." Giuliani understood the danger earlier than most. "I assumed from the time I came into office that New York City would be the subject of a terrorist attack," he says. The World Trade Center was bombed by Muslim terrorists in 1993, before he became mayor, and while most New Yorkers pushed the memory aside, Giuliani did not. To ease the long-standing disaster-scene turf battles between fire and police, he created the Office of Emergency Management and built a $13 million emergency command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, a mid-size building in the complex. The place was ridiculed as "Rudy's bunker." (Only the location was a mistake; on Sept. 11 the bunker had to be evacuated, and the entire building collapsed.) He beefed up security and restricted access around City Hall, brushing aside those who charged that he was stifling the democratic right to free assembly. He and his staff held drills playing out 10 disaster scenarios, from anthrax attacks to truck bombs to poison-gas releases. He didn't foresee terrorists flying airliners into office towers, but the constant drilling ensured that when it happened, everyone in city government knew how to respond. "We used to make fun of those drills," says chief of staff Tony Carbonetti, "but I think they saved lives." In the weeks after Sept. 11--but before spores started getting mailed to media targets around Manhattan--Giuliani convened meetings with the Centers for Disease Control and the fbi to discuss the threat of anthrax. As a result, he knew more about anthrax than Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. While Ridge and Thompson contradicted each other and downplayed the lethal nature of the spores, Giuliani treated the public like grownups, offering unvarnished information and never having to backtrack. When he told people not to panic, they didn't. Giuliani had his own issues with the Federal Government. The fbi was stingy with intelligence and slow to test for anthrax in the city. By late October, five New Yorkers had been infected with anthrax and one was dying. And on Monday, Oct. 29, the day before Giuliani's beloved Yankees were set to play Game 3 of the World Series at their stadium in the Bronx, Ridge and Attorney General John Ashcroft alerted the public to one of their "credible but unspecified" threats and advised local law enforcement to be on the highest level of alert. Giuliani phoned Ridge and asked what he was supposed to do with this warning. "Tom, the city is already on the very highest state of alert," he said. "The lampposts are on alert. I've got the World Series tomorrow night. I've got the President coming to throw out the first pitch. I've got 30,000 people running in the marathon on Sunday, with 2 million watching. Are you telling me to close the airports? Cancel the series? Tell the President not to come?" Ridge said he would call back. When he did, he told Giuliani to go ahead with all his plans. Twelve hundred police officers and two F-14 jet fighters secured Yankee Stadium when Bush threw out the first pitch. Giuliani and his aides debated briefly whether to postpone the marathon, but he decided not to. "The city has to be open for business," he told the police commissioner. As the World Series continued, Giuliani commuted to Arizona for the away games, then raced back to his city. On Saturday, Nov. 3, he was in Phoenix, rooting hard in the ninth inning of Game 6 with the Yankees losing, when aides interrupted him. Anthrax spores had been found inside City Hall. It turned out to be a minor contamination, and the mayor wasn't going to let anything--not anthrax, not even the Yankees' loss--interfere with his determinedly good mood. He flew through the night, arriving home in time to cheer for the marathon winner. Nothing blew up. Today, as the weeks pass without further attacks and people start to relax, Giuliani has remained on alert. "I think we have to assume that in both cases--the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the anthrax, which may be either terrorists or nuts--we're not finished with them. We have to assume that they are going to do other things." A Man in Full Most New York Mayors leave office defeated and embittered by the demands of running the city. But when Giuliani hands over the reins to billionaire Mike Bloomberg at a ceremony planned for Times Square just after midnight on Jan. 1, he will leave at the peak of his popularity. He changed the outcome of the race to succeed him, ensuring Bloomberg's victory simply by making a TV ad endorsing him. In one sense, his mayoralty ends as it began, with the economy in recession and his aides negotiating painful budget cuts with the city council. The city's schools are little better than he found them, and cops are again rousting the homeless from Fifth Avenue. But so much else has changed that Giuliani has vaulted into the ranks of world leaders. He ignites adulation in the streets of Jerusalem. His Blackberry pager pulls in an e-mail message from the Queen of England, who is available in February to knight him. He has a $3 million, two-book deal. The networks are dangling offers. He will command six-figure speaking fees and open a consulting company with some of his aides (Rudy would not be happy working for someone). His divorce will soon be final, and some of his friends think he and Nathan will get married, but he won't confirm that. He does look forward to spending more time with his children, though even in the midst of post-9/11 recovery he managed to attend eight of Andrew's nine high-school football games as well as see Caroline's school play and take her on a private tour of ground zero. "She wanted to see it," he says. "She was upset but not overwrought. It's my job to do for my kids what my father did for me--try to help them figure out how to deal with fear. How to live life, even though you are afraid." As long as Giuliani remains healthy, his friends believe, he will sooner or later make his next move and run for higher office. He is keeping his political-action committee up and running, and he will wait for his opening. At 57, he has time. He doesn't want to be Homeland Security boss or run for Governor against fellow Republican George Pataki, but he has always had half-concealed presidential dreams, and it's easy to imagine him trying for the Senate (in New York or New Jersey) or even serving as George W. Bush's running mate if Dick Cheney chooses not to go again. "You never know what you would do if a President asked you," he says. Bush almost surely won't ask--he prizes long-tested loyalty as much as Giuliani does--but if he did, the mayor would listen. "That's further in the future, which might make a difference. But right now I'm not looking for anything. Even before Sept. 11, I was looking forward to some private time. I need to take a break, reflect on everything that's happened. I haven't had enough time to think about any of this. I could use a vacation." His last one was 40 minutes long. It was the night of Sept. 13, and Giuliani was at the police academy command post, where he had been around-the-clock for three days. The 72-hr. wave of adrenaline was wearing off, and he was feeling the strain. The President would be arriving in the morning for his first trip to ground zero. The city was still pretty well closed down. And the casualties were, as Giuliani had predicted, more than anyone could bear. Nobody had been pulled alive from the site since the first night, and the city medical examiner, Dr. Charles Hirsch, was telling him that additional rescues were extremely unlikely. Hirsch cited examples from earthquakes around the world to make the point. Giuliani wasn't ready to abandon hope. "These are New Yorkers," he said. "Give 'em another week." Nathan could see he was near the end of his rope. (She hadn't realized his rope had an end, but here it was.) They retreated to his tiny office--a nook she had commandeered for him near the coffee lounge. "You need a moment," she told him. "I probably need a couple," he said. "Why don't you go for a walk?" "I can't do that. How can I?" Nathan showed him how. She knew the deputy mayors would be hovering outside, so she got his security detail to sneak Rudy out the back door of the office, slip him down the fire escape and into the SUV, and drive him off. Nathan stayed behind. "I wanted him to go alone, to be with his thoughts for a little bit," she says. The deputies burst into the room. "Where is he?" "He went for a walk." "What? Where?" They were ready to chase him down the street, but he was gone. When his SUV had made it a block from the command post, Giuliani told the driver to pull over. He got out on First Avenue and walked through Peter Cooper Village, an old brick apartment complex full of middle-class teachers, nurses, cops and office workers--his people. He asked his security team to hang back so he could walk alone. People saw him and did double takes. Some approached quietly, hesitantly; every New Yorker feels entitled to fill the mayor's ear, but not this night. This night they offered him a quick hug or a few soft words of thanks and let him walk on alone. He headed east, through a tunnel under the F.D.R. Drive, toward the East River. "I wanted to look at it," he says. "I wanted to look at the river. It was still there." He turned from the dark water and stared up at the lights. "I looked at the skyline," he says. "It was still there." Then he walked back to work. From ruth.marcus@yale.edu Tue Aug 21 22:15:24 2007 Received: from pantheon-po05.its.yale.edu (pantheon-po05.its.yale.edu [130.132.50.34]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7M2FLwE026578 for ; Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:15:23 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (ajax.its.yale.edu [130.132.52.13]) by pantheon-po05.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l7M2FC0m010787 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:15:16 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l7M2FCvW030512; Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:15:12 -0400 Received: from localhost (rmarcus@localhost) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11/Submit) with ESMTP id l7M2FCJL030508; Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:15:12 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: ajax.its.yale.edu: rmarcus owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:15:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Ruth Marcus X-X-Sender: rmarcus@ajax.its.yale.edu To: Ruben Safir cc: Ruth Marcus Subject: Re: wikepedia In-Reply-To: <20070710024822.GA31379@www2.mrbrklyn.com> Message-ID: References: <20070708115905.GA11446@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070709015808.GA20548@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070710024822.GA31379@www2.mrbrklyn.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="-2071851724-1907989795-1187748912=:29162" X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2c (attachment(s) not renamed) Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 6004 Lines: 212 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. ---2071851724-1907989795-1187748912=:29162 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE You have not removed the wikipedia bio from your site. They tell me you=20 will have to do it. They have removed the famly section fom their site. Do remove it from yor site. On Mon, 9 Jul 2007, Ruben Safir wrote: > On Mon, Jul 09, 2007 at 09:15:30PM -0400, Ruth Marcus wrote: >> >> It is out. No need for youyo respomd. >> > > > I do a a bit of work for wikipedia so, it was nothing for me to remove it= =2E > > Ruben >> >> rOn Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Ruben Safir wrote: >> >>> On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 01:21:14PM -0400, Ruth Marcus wrote: >>>> >>>> I will edit it out. >>> >>> >>> Actually, I was thinking about this today when we were at MOMA, and I >>> think I might >>> just contact John who is the guy who I helped migrate wikipedia to its >>> current MYSQL >>> backend, and ask him to remove the entry. This has left a bad taste in= my >>> mouth and >>> the entry has crossed into a private vanity entry and a PR tool, both o= f >>> which are >>> violations of Wikipedia policy. I was worried about that happening bef= ore >>> when >>> folks started piling on to the family section and adding names. Now I'= m >>> feeling >>> quite certain about it. >>> >>> For one thing, generally it is very frowned upon for living subjects to >>> edit entries >>> about themselves. The article itself is not supposed to be a reflectio= n >>> of the >>> subjects aspirations or desires. The real tipping point in my thinking >>> about this >>> happened when you complained about the article being "unprofessional". >>> I'm not >>> certain what that means but I'm certain that a figure, living or deceas= ed >>> which >>> is historically important enough to have an entry in the Wikpedia needs= to >>> have >>> a good biographical section. Certainly you didn't spring to life in 19= 41 >>> and >>> more than Lincoln did at the Stephan Douglas debate, >>> >>> I'm going to think about this more, but that's how I'm leaning at the >>> moment. >>> >>> I have to get back to teaching my Perl Class. Talk to you later. And = BTW, >>> I'm very happy to hear that you've fought off the cancer sucessfuly and >>> that >>> we all love you here in Brooklyn. You are in our prayers. >>> >>> Sincerely >>> Ruben >>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Ruben Safir wrote: >>>> >>>>> On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 04:18:58AM -0400, Ruth Marcus wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> PLEASE STOP INSERTING A FAMILY SECTION IN MY WIKIPEDIA ENTRY. iT IS >>>>>> UNPROFESSIONAL, INAPPROPRIATE AS WELL AS FULL OF MISTAKES AND GARBLE= D.I >>>>>> HAVE ASKED WIKIPEDIA TO DELETE IT AGAIN >>>>>> >>>>>> RUTH B MARCUS >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> I didn't write it, I just reasseted. I see no errors it in however, = and >>>>> its >>>>> not unprofessional and it would belong. >>>>> >>>>> Ruben >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >>>>> http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software >>>>> >>>>> So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, l= ike >>>>> Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world = - RI >>>>> Safir 1998 >>>>> >>>>> http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI >>>>> Safir 2002 >>>>> >>>>> "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" >>>>> >>>>> "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers= to >>>>> our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in ou= r >>>>> own >>>>> society." >>>>> >>>>> "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be >>>>> damned.< >>>>> You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology ha= ve >>>>> been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I g= uess >>>>> you missed that one." >>>>> >>>>> =A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >>>>> >>>> >>>> mp >>>> >>>> m >>> >>> >>> -- >>> http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >>> http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software >>> >>> So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e >>> Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - = RI >>> Safir 1998 >>> >>> http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI >>> Safir 2002 >>> >>> "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" >>> >>> "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers t= o >>> our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our = own >>> society." >>> >>> "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be >>> damned.< >>> You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have >>> been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I gue= ss >>> you missed that one." >>> >>> =A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >>> >> >> mp >> >> m > > > --=20 > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like = Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI S= afir 1998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 2002 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to = our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own = society." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damne= d.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have b= een attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess yo= u missed that one." > > =A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > mp m ---2071851724-1907989795-1187748912=:29162-- From ruth.marcus@yale.edu Mon Jul 9 21:15:46 2007 Received: from pantheon-po05.its.yale.edu (pantheon-po05.its.yale.edu [130.132.50.34]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l6A1FiHZ031086 for ; Mon, 9 Jul 2007 21:15:46 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (ajax.its.yale.edu [130.132.52.13]) by pantheon-po05.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l6A1FWvZ022997 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Mon, 9 Jul 2007 21:15:33 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l6A1FWbI008492 for ; Mon, 9 Jul 2007 21:15:32 -0400 Received: from localhost (rmarcus@localhost) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11/Submit) with ESMTP id l6A1FUur008488 for ; Mon, 9 Jul 2007 21:15:32 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: ajax.its.yale.edu: rmarcus owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 21:15:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Ruth Marcus X-X-Sender: rmarcus@ajax.its.yale.edu To: Ruben Safir Subject: Re: wikepedia In-Reply-To: <20070709015808.GA20548@www2.mrbrklyn.com> Message-ID: References: <20070708115905.GA11446@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070709015808.GA20548@www2.mrbrklyn.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="-2071851724-1809353975-1184030130=:8214" X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2c (attachment(s) not renamed) X-Keywords: X-UID: 36340 Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 4423 Lines: 150 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. ---2071851724-1809353975-1184030130=:8214 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE It is out. No need for youyo respomd. rOn Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Ruben Safir wrote: > On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 01:21:14PM -0400, Ruth Marcus wrote: >> >> I will edit it out. > > > Actually, I was thinking about this today when we were at MOMA, and I thi= nk I might > just contact John who is the guy who I helped migrate wikipedia to its cu= rrent MYSQL > backend, and ask him to remove the entry. This has left a bad taste in m= y mouth and > the entry has crossed into a private vanity entry and a PR tool, both of = which are > violations of Wikipedia policy. I was worried about that happening befor= e when > folks started piling on to the family section and adding names. Now I'm = feeling > quite certain about it. > > For one thing, generally it is very frowned upon for living subjects to e= dit entries > about themselves. The article itself is not supposed to be a reflection = of the > subjects aspirations or desires. The real tipping point in my thinking a= bout this > happened when you complained about the article being "unprofessional". I= 'm not > certain what that means but I'm certain that a figure, living or deceased= which > is historically important enough to have an entry in the Wikpedia needs t= o have > a good biographical section. Certainly you didn't spring to life in 1941= and > more than Lincoln did at the Stephan Douglas debate, > > I'm going to think about this more, but that's how I'm leaning at the mom= ent. > > I have to get back to teaching my Perl Class. Talk to you later. And BT= W, > I'm very happy to hear that you've fought off the cancer sucessfuly and t= hat > we all love you here in Brooklyn. You are in our prayers. > > Sincerely > Ruben > >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Ruben Safir wrote: >> >>> On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 04:18:58AM -0400, Ruth Marcus wrote: >>>> >>>> PLEASE STOP INSERTING A FAMILY SECTION IN MY WIKIPEDIA ENTRY. iT IS >>>> UNPROFESSIONAL, INAPPROPRIATE AS WELL AS FULL OF MISTAKES AND GARBLED.= I >>>> HAVE ASKED WIKIPEDIA TO DELETE IT AGAIN >>>> >>>> RUTH B MARCUS >>>> >>> >>> I didn't write it, I just reasseted. I see no errors it in however, an= d >>> its >>> not unprofessional and it would belong. >>> >>> Ruben >>> >>> >>> -- >>> http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff >>> http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software >>> >>> So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, lik= e >>> Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - = RI >>> Safir 1998 >>> >>> http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI >>> Safir 2002 >>> >>> "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" >>> >>> "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers t= o >>> our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our = own >>> society." >>> >>> "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be >>> damned.< >>> You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have >>> been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I gue= ss >>> you missed that one." >>> >>> =A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium >>> >> >> mp >> >> m > > > --=20 > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like = Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI S= afir 1998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 2002 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to = our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own = society." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damne= d.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have b= een attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess yo= u missed that one." > > =A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > mp m ---2071851724-1809353975-1184030130=:8214-- From ruth.marcus@yale.edu Sun Jul 8 13:21:27 2007 Received: from pantheon-po08.its.yale.edu (pantheon-po08.its.yale.edu [130.132.50.50]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l68HLPbZ014204 for ; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 13:21:27 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (ajax.its.yale.edu [130.132.52.13]) by pantheon-po08.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l68HLEdY004924 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Sun, 8 Jul 2007 13:21:14 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l68HLEdC000794; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 13:21:14 -0400 Received: from localhost (rmarcus@localhost) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11/Submit) with ESMTP id l68HLEmr000790; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 13:21:14 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: ajax.its.yale.edu: rmarcus owned process doing -bs Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 13:21:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Ruth Marcus X-X-Sender: rmarcus@ajax.its.yale.edu To: Ruben Safir cc: Ruth Marcus Subject: Re: wikepedia In-Reply-To: <20070708115905.GA11446@www2.mrbrklyn.com> Message-ID: References: <20070708115905.GA11446@www2.mrbrklyn.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="-2071851724-322755240-1183915274=:744" X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2c (attachment(s) not renamed) X-Keywords: X-UID: 36235 Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 1718 Lines: 61 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. ---2071851724-322755240-1183915274=:744 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE I will edit it out. On Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Ruben Safir wrote: > On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 04:18:58AM -0400, Ruth Marcus wrote: >> >> PLEASE STOP INSERTING A FAMILY SECTION IN MY WIKIPEDIA ENTRY. iT IS >> UNPROFESSIONAL, INAPPROPRIATE AS WELL AS FULL OF MISTAKES AND GARBLED.I >> HAVE ASKED WIKIPEDIA TO DELETE IT AGAIN >> >> RUTH B MARCUS >> > > I didn't write it, I just reasseted. I see no errors it in however, and = its > not unprofessional and it would belong. > > Ruben > > > --=20 > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software > > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like = Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI S= afir 1998 > > http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Saf= ir 2002 > > "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" > > "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to = our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own = society." > > "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damne= d.< > You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have b= een attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess yo= u missed that one." > > =A9 Copyright for the Digital Millennium > mp m ---2071851724-322755240-1183915274=:744-- From ruth.marcus@yale.edu Sun Jul 8 04:19:12 2007 Received: from pantheon-po06.its.yale.edu (pantheon-po06.its.yale.edu [130.132.50.36]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l688JAqs010002 for ; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 04:19:12 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (ajax.its.yale.edu [130.132.52.13]) by pantheon-po06.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l688IxTL019586 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 04:18:59 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l688IwZX001146 for ; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 04:18:58 -0400 Received: from localhost (rmarcus@localhost) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11/Submit) with ESMTP id l688IwW9001142 for ; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 04:18:58 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: ajax.its.yale.edu: rmarcus owned process doing -bs Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 04:18:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Ruth Marcus X-X-Sender: rmarcus@ajax.its.yale.edu To: ruben@mrbrklyn.com Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2c (attachment(s) not renamed) X-Keywords: X-UID: 36220 Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 202 Lines: 8 PLEASE STOP INSERTING A FAMILY SECTION IN MY WIKIPEDIA ENTRY. iT IS UNPROFESSIONAL, INAPPROPRIATE AS WELL AS FULL OF MISTAKES AND GARBLED.I HAVE ASKED WIKIPEDIA TO DELETE IT AGAIN RUTH B MARCUS m From ruth.marcus@yale.edu Thu Aug 23 15:02:50 2007 Received: from pantheon-po06.its.yale.edu (pantheon-po06.its.yale.edu [130.132.50.36]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7NJ2mIN010976 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:02:50 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (ajax.its.yale.edu [130.132.52.13]) by pantheon-po06.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l7NJ2hrj026986 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:02:43 -0400 Received: from ajax.its.yale.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l7NJ2gvb031607; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:02:42 -0400 Received: from localhost (rmarcus@localhost) by ajax.its.yale.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11/Submit) with ESMTP id l7NJ2g3Q031603; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:02:42 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: ajax.its.yale.edu: rmarcus owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:02:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Ruth Marcus X-X-Sender: rmarcus@ajax.its.yale.edu To: Ruben Safir cc: Ruth Marcus Subject: Re: wikepedia In-Reply-To: <20070822103327.GA30289@www2.mrbrklyn.com> Message-ID: References: <20070708115905.GA11446@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070709015808.GA20548@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070710024822.GA31379@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070822103327.GA30289@www2.mrbrklyn.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2c (attachment(s) not renamed) Status: RO X-Status: A Content-Length: 48 Lines: 6 What is a bio of me doing on your site? mp m From owner-hangout@mrbrklyn.com Thu Aug 23 18:05:58 2007 Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7NM5tSu012290 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:05:57 -0400 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id l7NM5tcr012289 for hangout-outgoings; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:05:55 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: www2.mrbrklyn.com: majordomo set sender to owner-hangout@nylxs.com using -f Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7NM5W7f012285; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:05:34 -0400 Received: (from ruben@localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id l7NM5Wwj012284; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:05:32 -0400 Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:05:32 -0400 From: Ruben Safir To: Ruben Safir Cc: Ron Guerin , hangout@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Fair Use, anyone? Message-ID: <20070823220532.GA12154@www2.mrbrklyn.com> References: <46CDF32C.2080804@vnetworx.net> <20070823214635.GA12063@www2.mrbrklyn.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20070823214635.GA12063@www2.mrbrklyn.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i Sender: owner-hangout@mrbrklyn.com Precedence: bulk Status: RO Content-Length: 1616 Lines: 38 You want to see craziness for Fair Use? I have an Aunt who is a dean at Yale University. Someone added a family history to her entry on Wikepedia. Others removed it. Once, I put it back. She emailed me and demanded that I changed it because it wasn't in her image. So I archived the example as it was under http://www.mrbrklyn.com/resources/ and edited to her liking. NOW she's demanding a take down from my archive. Do you think I'd remove anything from my online archives to satify relatives ego? And here is the best part, she is fameous for her work on the philosophical analysis of moral questions. Its amazing how morally challenged people are when they want to have their way. http://www.mrbrklyn.com/resources/ruth_barcan1.txt Ruben -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one." Copyright for the Digital Millennium From ron@vnetworx.net Thu Aug 23 18:11:52 2007 Received: from broadway.vnetworx.net (broadway.vnetworx.net [69.31.43.18]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7NMBo2N012363 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:11:52 -0400 Received: (qmail 18515 invoked by uid 89); 23 Aug 2007 22:11:47 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.42?) (74.73.31.218) by broadway.vnetworx.net with SMTP for ; 23 Aug 2007 22:11:47 -0000 Message-ID: <46CE061F.9050702@vnetworx.net> Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:11:43 -0400 From: Ron Guerin User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Windows/20070728) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ruben Safir CC: hangout@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Fair Use, anyone? References: <46CDF32C.2080804@vnetworx.net> <20070823214635.GA12063@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <20070823220532.GA12154@www2.mrbrklyn.com> In-Reply-To: <20070823220532.GA12154@www2.mrbrklyn.com> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Status: RO Content-Length: 295 Lines: 10 Ruben Safir wrote: > Its amazing how morally challenged people are when they want to have > their way. It no longer amazes me, but that doesn't make it any less irritating. Those who hide behind the law in dismissing morality are often those who paid for the legislation to begin with. - Ron From owner-hangout@mrbrklyn.com Thu Aug 23 18:18:44 2007 Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7NMIgpX012478 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:18:44 -0400 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id l7NMIgV9012477 for hangout-outgoings; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:18:42 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: www2.mrbrklyn.com: majordomo set sender to owner-hangout@nylxs.com using -f Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id l7NMIFQV012469; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:18:17 -0400 Received: (from ruben@localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id l7NMIETD012468; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:18:14 -0400 Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:18:14 -0400 From: Ruben Safir To: Ron Guerin Cc: Ruben Safir , hangout@mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Fair Use, anyone? Message-ID: <20070823221814.GA12385@www2.mrbrklyn.com> References: <46CDF32C.2080804@vnetworx.net> <20070823214635.GA12063@www2.mrbrklyn.com> <46CE054E.1090106@vnetworx.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <46CE054E.1090106@vnetworx.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i Sender: owner-hangout@mrbrklyn.com Precedence: bulk Status: RO Content-Length: 4975 Lines: 106 On Thu, Aug 23, 2007 at 06:08:14PM -0400, Ron Guerin wrote: > Ruben Safir wrote: > > On Thu, Aug 23, 2007 at 04:50:52PM -0400, Ron Guerin wrote: > >> This is a question for Ruben, but I'm sure he'd prefer to answer it > >> publicly, so I'm going to ask it here. > >> > >> What do you make of this? > >> http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/worlds-largest-.html > >> > >> This girl was convicted of filming 20 seconds of a movie. Doesn't that > >> seem ... uhm... un-Constitutional? If twenty seconds doesn't fall under > >> Fair Use, what does? > > > > Was it in the theater when filmed, or from a VHS? She has an idiot lawyer since we SAW > > Time Warner film by a camcorder 20 seconds of Sipiderman I film as an EXAMPLE of Fair Use > > at the DMCA hearing. > > She filmed 20 seconds of it while in the theater on her digital camera. > Note that we're not even talking a camcorder, we're talking those > "videos" digital cameras make. Odds are her camera didn't even have the > capacity to record more than a few minutes. The theater had her > prosecuted. The DA claims to have been "pressured". > > > So should we form a protest and get ourselves arrested as well? > > I'm not pretending to know much about this, which is partly why I've > brought it up. Obviously you didn't read the article yet, but to give > you the executive summary, the MPAA has been getting a law passed making > it a serious crime to record in a movie theater, and a specific theater > chain pressed charges against a 19 year old girl in Virginia to make an > example of her over 20 seconds of video she was bringing home to her > little brother. I don't know if New York has such a law, I don't know > if that chain operates in New York. But you've answered my question, > which is why I asked you. You're the guy I know who'd know that Time > Warner did something even more sophisticated and presented it as an > example of Fair Use at trial. Virgina is not far from here and I haven't been locked up for a while. BTW - I'm flying out to SF next month and I hope to catch up with some west coast friends. I have a 5 day conference on Pharmacokindtics and Clinical Pharmacology. As per Ruth Barcan Marcus, This the the URL for the original Wikipedia entry. http://www.mrbrklyn.com/resources/Ruth_Barcan_Marcus.html Check this out [edit] Moral Conflict Marcus defines a consistent set of moral principles as one in which there is some "possible world " in which they are all obeyable. That they may conflict in the actual world is not a mark of inconsistency. As in the case of necessity of identity, there was a resistance to this interpretation of moral conflict. Her argument counts against a widely received view that systems of moral rules are inevitably inconsistent. See "Moral Dilemmas and Consistency" (Journal of Philosophy, 1980)(and frequently published elsewhere). [edit] Belief It is proposed that believing is a relationship of an agent to a possible state of affairs under specified internal and external circumstances. Assenting to a quoted sentence (the disquotation account of belief) is only one behavioral marker of believing. Betting behavior is another. The wholly language centered account of belief (e.g. Davidson) is rejected. Where an agent behaves as if an impossibility obtained Marcus proposes that under those circumstances the agent, on the disclosure of the impossibility should say that she only claimed to believe an impossibility. In much the same way, when a mathamatecian discovers that one of his conjectures is false, and since if it is mathetatically false it is impossible, he would say he only claimed to believe it. Odd as this proposal is, it is analogous to the widely accepted principle about knowing: if we claim to know P, and P turns out false, we do not say we we used to know it, we say we were mistaken in so claiming. See "A Proposed Solution to The Puzzle About Belief" (Foundations of Analytic Philosophy in Midwest Studies, 1981) and "Rationality and Believing the Impossible" (The Journal of Philosophy, 1983 and elsewhere). Want to email her? Ruben > > - Ron -- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998 http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002 "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME" "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society." "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one." Copyright for the Digital Millennium A Personal Story My journey from alcoholism to sobriety, recovery and the bench By the Hon. Sarah L. Krauss It was a busy morning in the Housing Court at the Kings County Courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y. As I waited to take my seat on the bench as the assignment judge that day, I surveyed the scene. This court hears landlord/tenant disputes and housing violations, only one of many courtrooms that handle a variety of civil cases in the building. More than 300 litigants waited to have their cases assigned for trial; all of them were seeking their day in court. Standing at the doorway of the courtroom, I reflected on how I had come to be here as a civil court judge. My reverie took me back to another time when I stood at the door of another room where a meeting of recovering alcoholics was in progress, and I recalled wondering how I had ended up there as one of them. My background had all the classic signposts for this journey into alcoholism -- an Irish heritage, an alcoholic father, assorted alcoholic aunts and uncles. But when did this happen to me? How had this happened to me? Like many young girls, I started drinking at parties with my boyfriend in suburban Detroit, where I grew up. Unlike most other adolescents, though, I experienced blackouts at 14. Despite this horrible side effect, what was far more important to me was the way alcohol made me feel -- freer, happier, less gawky, more like I belonged. I married young, became a mother at age 17, and continued to drink. While I usually drank until I was drunk and often did things I was later ashamed of, drinking was still fun and thrilling. Orange juice and vodka was an exotic concoction to an inexperienced teen-aged mother who was suddenly in charge of another human life. Drinking also made my marriage more bearable. Curiously, while my marriage was disintegrating, I found that a drive, a desire to achieve and an ambition to succeed had been ignited in me that was caused, in part, by the realization that I would eventually have to take care of myself and my young child. This drive spurred me to go back and finish high school, then enroll in college, and to start working full-time to pay for my tuition. When my marriage finally ended, I started raising my young daughter all alone. After graduating from college magna cum laude, I applied for and was accepted at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. While taking evening classes at law school, I began working full-time in a bail program with the Wayne County Circuit Court. In a short span of five years, I had transformed myself from a naive, dependent wife, into a disciplined, motivated superwoman. I could do anything! But in spite of my new confidence and drive to succeed, I continued to drink; I still needed to drink. Now I drank to relax, to relieve the stress of constant studying and working and the pressure of all those classes. So what if I was hung over occasionally and short-tempered at my job? I deserved a little fun. So what if my school attendance fell off? I could always make it up. So what if stops at a bar became an increasingly frequent, evening-long activity? So what if I stumbled home long after midnight, leaving my sister to care for my daughter by default? So what? I was a single, working mother who planned to join a noble profession -- I was going to be a lawyer. I was on the ladder up, a trailblazer, a woman on fire. After three and a half years, I graduated from law school in 1975, and immediately moved to New York City where I held a variety of jobs in city and state government, and finally with a judge in the New York Supreme Court in Brooklyn. There, I had a new boyfriend, new friends, and what I hoped would be a new relationship with my daughter and my drinking. This time, I told myself, I would take the upper hand and control how much and how often I drank. (I didn't know yet that trying to control your drinking was a sure sign of alcoholism.) But that didn't happen. I recognized that my drinking was out of control, and people were starting to tell me that I might have a problem. Maybe, I thought, but I found a quick solution to deal with them. Anyone who mentioned my drinking was cut out of my life forever -- cleanly, swiftly, sharply. These people were replaced by new "friends" who drank like me. And I spent less time with my daughter, boyfriend and old comrades. Things continued to worsen. I shifted the blame for everything wrong in my life -- for my need to drink in the first place -- on to my boyfriend, the weather, my boss, the grocer, the bank teller, even the mayor of New York City (at the time, Abraham Beame). Now more and more people were telling me I had a problem, so I stopped drinking in public. I stopped going out, preferring to spend more and more evenings alone in the privacy of my home. I was safer there, too; I had recently become afraid of where I might end up in a blackout if I went out drinking. At this point, I found it was me telling myself that I had a problem. That's when I realized I couldn't stop drinking. I was addicted. So I started going to therapists and psychiatrists. The counseling caused me to stop and start drinking many times. The years it took to finally stop drinking completely wreaked havoc in my relationships. My daughter left home at 20 and moved all the way across America to escape. I was asked to leave one job. At the next one, I managed to work fairly steadily, but my behavior was such that people, like my daughter, stayed far away. At my sister's insistence, I agreed to enter a five-day hospital detoxification program. I was afraid if I refused, she, too, might leave. Once in detox, the doctors convinced me that I would benefit by going to a rehabilitation center. So I did, spending a month there. When I returned to my job, my boss was hesitant to keep me on. He didn't want an alcoholic working for him. He finally kept me on, but his reluctance fueled my desire to stop drinking for good in much the same way my divorce motivated me to finish school so many years before. It has now been 14 years since I've had a drink. My life today is unrecognizable from the old one. Today I live by a set of spiritual principles that have seen me through the many difficult days of recovery. My recovery process has not only put my life back on track, but I have healed and grown in ways far beyond anything I could ever have imagined in an alcoholic haze. I have a close, loving relationship with my daughter. I have sober, caring friends. I have a busy life and a career that continues to amaze and astonish me. I am happy and relieved of the stress and worry that plagued me in the years that I drank. In sobriety, I've become active in bar association activities. After being mentored by a woman lawyer who also worked in the courts, I was elected president of a local women's bar association and later secretary and vice president of the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York. As my recovery continued and my confidence increased, I joined other bars, including the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Lawyer Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Working with the committee gave me the opportunity to help others in our profession who suffer from the disease of alcoholism. This work has been more than just personally rewarding; it has also provided an opportunity to serve in another legal structure. In 1994, I was appointed to the American Bar Association's Commission on Impaired Attorneys, which has allowed me to be involved nationally with lawyers and judges who want to help alcoholic lawyers resolve their problems and continue, or return to, the practice of law. After participating in bar association activities, I began to explore the possibility of becoming a judge in New York City. But much to my dismay, the application forms for appointment to the bench included questions about treatment for alcoholism. Having recognized the need for honesty as a principle of my recovery, I was prepared to, and did, answer truthfully. But when I was interviewed by the committee having the authority to recommend my appointment, no one asked me about this aspect of my background. It seemed that such problems, even when exposed by the applicant, were not discussed and dealt with in the open. I was not appointed that year or the next time I renewed my application, and I didn't know whether my past had anything to do with my not being appointed. Undaunted, I decided to run for an elected position on the Kings County Civil Court. In early 1994 -- the 12th year of my recovery from alcoholism -- I decided to run for the Civil Court bench as an insurgent Democratic candidate. Having very little political support, I ran against the regular Democratic party candidates. My entire campaign, with the exception of the person hired to manage it, was run by the people I had met during my recovery. To say that the experience of my recovery gave me the courage and strength to do this is an understatement. The kind of emotional support I received from my friends in recovery, as well as from the members of the state bar's lawyer alcoholism committee, was beyond any that a political committee or party could have provided. We alcoholics learn, as an essential part of our recovery, to put in the effort and let go of the results. The only times I felt tearful during that long and arduous year of campaigning was when I focused on what would happen if I lost the election. But when I put this fear into perspective, I said, "so what?" I still had my job, my friends, my life. I found that the alcoholism recovery principles worked even under the most stressful circumstances. They gave me the energy and the attitude to finish the race. In November 1994, I won the election. I am now a sitting judge. My first year and a half on the bench has been exciting, challenging and rewarding. The opportunities to be of service to others have been too numerous to recount here. Let's just say that alcoholism is rampant, not only in our profession but in society as a whole. Every day I see how the results of the disease bring so many people into contact with the legal system I am now a part of. As a member of the ABA's Commission on Impaired Attorneys, I encourage any of you who think you can help address the problem of alcoholism and drug addiction among lawyers to get involved in your local or state bar association lawyer's assistance committee. Most bar committees have both recovering alcoholics as well as non-alcoholics as members. In particular, if you are a woman lawyer in recovery, please get involved. We've learned that many women lawyers who need help are too terrified to seek it. They believe that identifying their problem to others will hurt their career. But the more women lawyers in recovery participate in this outreach effort, the more likely we are to succeed in helping women reach full recovery. I can only hope that reading this personal story of my alcohol abuse and subsequent recovery will encourage someone to reach out for help themselves, or to another lawyer in trouble, or to offer assistance to the bar association in their community. The risks I face in writing such a public account will be more than worth it if one life is saved as a result of someone reading my own journey from alcoholism to sobriety, recovery and the bench. Reprinted by permission. "A Personal Story," by Sarah L. Krauss, Faye A. Silas (ed.), Bar Leader, May 1996, Copyright (c) 1996 by the American Bar Association. Tennessee Bar Journal November/December 1998 - Vol. 34, No. 6 Friday 7-24 Sat 7-25 Kings Sun 7-26 Kings Mon 7-27 Kings Wed 7-29 Friday 7-31 Saturday 8-1 Tues 8-4 Wed 8-5 Fri 8-7 Tues 8-11 Wed 8-12 Fri 8-14 Sat 8-15 Sun 8-16 1PM - 8PM Church Avenue Wed Aug 19 SCREWED Thurs Kings in WIlliamsburg - Hipster 241 Bedford Avenue 5:00PM Anthony Fri Aug 21 Mon 8-24 Kings Tues 8-25 BB Wed 8-26 Thur 8-27 Kings Fri 8-28 Sun 8-30 Kings Mon 8-31 BB Tue 9-01 BM web 9-02 BM thurs 9-03 BM fri 9-04 BM Mon 9-7 Kings Tues 9-8 Hudson Square Pharm Wed 9-09 BM Fri 9-11 BM Sat 9-12 BM Tue 9-15 3PM-7PM Royal Wed 9-16 BM Fri 9-18 BM Mon 9-21 Kings COURT Wed 9-23 BM thur 9-24 Royal Fri 9-25 BM Thur 10-1 Royal Tues 10-6 Royal Tues 10-27 Court DVDs Can Soon Be Legally Burned by Licensed Services By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews July 3, 2007, 2:36 PM After a decade and a half of negotiations, waiting, and litigation - with the emphasis toward the latter - the DVD Copy Control Association, which administers the CSS copy protection scheme, formally announced yesterday that it will soon become legal for businesses to burn DVDs on demand whose copy protection includes CSS. The announcement comes at what may finally be the resolution of a debate among different infighting groups of movie studios and CE manufacturers, over how - or whether - to implement a way for licensed companies to sell DVDs through a replication service. One such service, CinemaNow, has been in business since July 2006, offering licensed download-to-own movies via the Internet. And another has been the subject of lawsuits and negotiations since 2004 that have threatened to destroy the company, despite an important legal victory. Kaleidescape, Inc. operates a service where movie DVDs can be burned and delivered to customers directly, through a kind of video jukebox-like vending machine. A second group of studios and manufacturers along with Intel, whose DVD CCA included members noticeably differ from CinemaNow's original licensors, had proposed an amendment to CSS' procedural specifications that would have effectively prohibited CSS from being copied legally, as an intellectual property component unto itself. "DVD Products, alone or in combination with other DVD Products, shall not be designed to descramble scrambled CSS Data when the DVD Disc containing such CSS Data and associated CSS keys is not physically present in the DVD Player or DVD Drive (as applicable)," the previously proposed amendment read, "and a DVD Product shall not be designed to make or direct the making of a persistent copy of CSS Data that has been descrambled from such DVD Disc by such DVD Product." Kaleidescape's service relies on jukeboxes containing massive hard drives on which images of movie discs are stored. Had that amendment passed, the company's standing arrangement with DVD CCA would have been jeopardized. But then again, the earlier contract between the two parties had been ruled unenforceable, partly because California Superior Court Judge Leslie Nichols ruled that the relationship between the CSS specifications and the CSS license was too murky, and that the specifications could not be enforced as though they were licensing provisions. That suit was filed in December 2004; Kaleidescape only prevailed just last March. While the DVD CCA appeals, certain of its members were attempting to rewrite the provisions, perhaps by way of clarification. The very existence of that proposed amendment was only revealed by way of an open letter from Kaleidescape, copies of which were sent to the press, as well as to several California congresspeople, the Federal Trade Commission, several attorneys-general, and the CEOs of the DVD CCA's principal member companies. As one portion of the letter read, "There is no valid business justification for the proposed amendment. After hearing all the evidence at trial, the Superior Court of California expressly found in its decision that the DVD CCA and its members have suffered no harm from the Kaleidescape System. To the contrary, the first thing many Kaleidescape owners do is to purchase hundreds of additional DVDs." It may have been that letter which tipped the scales in Kaleidescape's favor, though Panasonic was reportedly the lone holdout for the last three months. However, what the DVD CCA is working to implement is a technology called CSS Managed Recording. Unlike the so-called "mandatory managed copy" provisions still being debated by proprietors of high-definition discs, CSS-MR would apply only in professional circumstances. It would still be non-permissible for consumers to burn backups of discs. Though the text of the amendment which did pass has not yet been released, it's believed that the grounds for justifying the consumer copy ban this time will not be that it's illegal to circumvent copy protection, but that copying CSS itself would be a violation of copyright. That part's important, because legislation before Congress sponsored by Rep. Rick Boucher (D - Calif.) - one of the recipients of the Kaleidescape letter - would formally legalize individuals making backups of movies and other digital material as fair use. Conceivably, if CSS were to be characterized as a separate and inviolable piece of intellectual property, then if the Boucher Bill were to pass, CSS' proponents could make the case that sure, you can copy the movie, but you can't copy anything else that's attached to the movie...such as CSS. A spokesperson for Sonic Solutions told Video Business magazine that it's looking forward to being able to sell DVD-burning software to video stores and replication kiosks, in order to help them overcome the problem of as much as 50% of consumers' title requests not being met because they're not in stock. 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These conditions may be obtained from the issuing carrier. Important legal notices Click Here! history lesson The roots of Arab Anti-Semitism Radical Islam’s favorite Western tradition. By David Greenberg Posted Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2001, at 3:08 PM ET Since Sept. 11, many Americans have been surprised by the prevalence and depth of anti-Semitism in the Arab world. Rumors that we recognize instantly as fabrications—such as the claim that 4,000 Jews were warned in advance about the World Trade Center attacks—are accepted unquestioningly in Arab countries. Reporters undergoing Middle East crash courses are discovering that even states at peace with Israel, such as Egypt, routinely propagate anti-Semitic propaganda of a virulence not seen in mainstream Western politics since World War II. This anti-Semitism isn’t just the sort of everyday stereotyping or genteel snobbery or even official intolerance that’s familiar, if mostly obsolescent, in the West. No, this is the strong stuff: fantasies that Jews ritually slaughter children and oversee secret conspiracies to rule the world. What’s more, unlike, say, Noam Chomsky, most Arab anti-Semites don’t bother with the protestations about how they only oppose Israel’s Palestinian policies and don’t really hate Jews per se. In their usage, Zionist, Israeli, and Jew are pretty much interchangeable terms. Finally, and most important, Arab anti-Semitism isn’t confined to the fringes of society. Whereas in Israel, as in other Western countries, overt bigotry is scolded, ignored, or kept out of politics, mainstream Arab culture promotes extreme anti-Semitic ideas through schools, newspapers, television, popular culture, and official ideology. It’s hardly even controversial. Bernard Lewis’ classic book Semites and Anti-Semites provides insight into how this condition came to be. As he notes, anti-Semitism in Arab countries (and non-Arab Islamic states such as Iran) has risen as Jew-hating in the areas formerly known as Christendom has plummeted. For example, whatever one thinks of the extent of anti-Semitism still extant within the Catholic Church, most Westerners consider the 1964 decision by the Second Vatican Council to repudiate claims that Jews killed Christ to be a mark of progress, to say the least. In Islam, however, centuries of teaching that the Jews didn’t kill Christ have now given way to an embrace of the very claims Christians have renounced. When Vatican II convened, it was Arab and Muslim organizations that most vehemently opposed exculpating the Jews of deicide—the Quran notwithstanding. Traditionally, Islam did not demonize Jews. In Muslim lore, Jews registered as only minor figures, drawing neither special hatred nor fondness. It was Christianity, in fact, whose teachings first propounded anti-Semitism. At first it was a fairly straightforward business: Jews didn’t view Christ as the messiah, and so they were denounced or oppressed. When times got bad, they were exiled or persecuted. Over time, Christian anti-Semitism acquired a racial dimension along with its religious thrust. This had significant consequences. After all, when Jew-hating was rooted in religion, a Jew could convert to Christianity and become, as it were, fully kosher. But when states began forcing Jews to convert—or face expulsion or execution—the authenticity of the Jews’ conversions became suspect. After Christians conquered Spain from the Muslims in 1492, they forced Jews and Muslims to convert, flee, or die. Many Jews converted yet practiced their old faith secretly, leading church officials to make new rules discriminating against all so-called conversos. In the 19th century, anti-Semitism became increasingly racialized. The Enlightenment certainly made life better for Jews, at least in Western Europe, where religious tolerance took hold. Yet the Enlightenment also brought new “scientific”—or, as we now say, pseudoscientific—notions that human beings belonged to different races, some superior to others. Under these notions, Jews (as well as Africans, Arabs, and others) were deemed to be biologically and thus immutably inferior to white or “Aryan” Europeans. Alongside racism, 19th-century Europe also saw the spread of nationalism: the idea that every people deserved its own state. Nationalism served to justify the repression of “alien” peoples, especially Jews—not just in eastern Europe, where Jews lived in ghettos, insulated from their Polish or Russian compatriots, but even in Western Europe, where many Jews were assimilated and considered themselves full citizens of their countries. This new form of ideological anti-Semitism—seeing the Jews as an alien and inferior people amid Christian European nations—finally got its name in 1879, thanks to an Austrian journalist named Wilhelm Marr. By this point, the ideology of anti-Semitism had bred elaborate theories about the Jewish people’s evil. In some cases, ancient religious bigotries were updated, as in the “blood libel” that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in making Passover matzot. (In Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ukraine, and elsewhere, Jews were actually tried in court on such charges.) In other cases, the slanders were new, as with the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document fabricated by Russian secret police that purported to divulge the Jews’ conspiratorial plans for world domination. Until the late 19th century, anti-Semitism as an ideology remained largely absent from Arab and Muslim culture. In the Quran and in Islamic commentary, Jews are significant not for rejecting Muhammad but for succumbing to his followers. In Arab literature, they are sometimes portrayed as hostile or vindictive, but their humility and weakness is a much more common theme. Islamic governments did not often persecute Jews either, the way European states did, and when Jews faced discrimination, it was no different from what Christians endured. Unlike in Europe, Jews in Islamic lands were not expelled or forced to convert or, with a few exceptions, consigned to ghettos. That all started to change around 1900. First, colonialism brought a growing European influence into the region, and both political and religious authorities from Europe promoted the idea that Jews engaged in ritual murders. Second, traditional Islamic authority was under challenge from Western liberalism, and the Jews provided a convenient scapegoat. During the 1908 Turkish revolution, the so-called Young Turks seized power in the Ottoman Empire and installed a constitutional regime that expanded freedom of religion. In arguing against the revolution, Muslim conservatives latched onto anti-Semitic propaganda, claiming that secret Jewish machinations lay behind the new regime. Finally, there was Zionism. Starting in the mid-1800s, Jews turned to Zionism—their own nationalism—as a solution to escalating European persecution. Since biblical times, Jews had maintained a small presence in the ancient kingdom of Judea (which in the late 19th century Europeans began calling Palestine), and Zionists saw the land as the ideal refuge for them, a Jewish National Home. Zionist immigration began in earnest in the 1880s, and soon Jewish settlers ran into conflicts with local Arabs. At first, however, the friction centered on grazing rights, land titles, and other property matters; it didn’t carry nationalist or religious overtones. Yet as crude anti-Semitic ideas circulated more widely, the view of Jews as greedy, devious, and bent on world domination became bound up with the Arab critique of Zionism. Possibly the first major expression of the now-common view that Jewish settlement was really a beachhead for a takeover of the region was published in 1909 by the Turkish journalist Yunus Nadi, who warned—without any evidence at all—that the Jews aimed to establish “an Israelite kingdom comprising the ancient states of Babel and Nineveh, with Jerusalem at its center.” The conspiratorial notion of the Jews as plotting to take over the world quickly developed. Then came the Holocaust, which not only marked the pinnacle of European anti-Semitism but encouraged it in the Arab world as well. Because Arab leaders shared the Germans’ hostility to Britain and France—the dominant colonial powers in the Middle East—they were eager to make common cause with Hitler, despite Nazi belief that they, like the Jews, were inferior to Aryans. The mufti of Jerusalem, among others, actively spread propaganda about “Anglo-Saxon Jewish greed” while praising the Nazi war effort. Even years later, sympathy for Nazism could be easily found in Arab culture. When Israel apprehended Adolf Eichmann in 1960, a Saudi newspaper headline read, “Capture of Eichmann, Who Had the Honor of Killing Five Million Jews.” If the Holocaust nurtured Arab anti-Semitism, it also helped to discredit such bigotry in the West. Indeed, it helped mobilize support for a Jewish state internationally. In 1948, Israel was finally granted independence. As if to welcome their new neighbor into the region, the Arab countries promptly invaded. Israel repulsed the attacks, and in the three Arab-Israeli wars that followed (1956, 1967, 1973), the Jewish state managed to survive and even to expand its territory. Most controversially, it took over the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan, which were home to large numbers of Palestinian Arabs. With Israel’s military successes and its willingness to occupy Arab lands until a peace treaty could be struck, Arab anti-Semitism hardened into official doctrine, as it has remained for many decades now. Propagandists, looking to rationalize their losses to a supposedly inferior people, came to depict the Jews as craven lackeys of a mightier power—the United States—a theme that can be heard in Osama Bin Laden’s rhetoric today. And it was not just propaganda: Arab countries passed laws that discriminate not against Israelis or Zionists but against all Jews, simply for being Jews. Islamic teaching, too, has been radically retrofitted to accommodate the new anti-Semitism. Whereas traditional Muslim accounts depict the fate of the Jews as tragic, that of a people too benighted to follow Muhammad the Prophet, current Muslim scholarship in the Arab world imaginatively rereads the Quran for evidence of the Jews’ devilish nature. Meanwhile, films showing sympathy for the Jews or depicting the Holocaust are censored, while staples of old-fashioned European anti-Semitism—cartoons portraying greedy hook-nosed Jews, popular novels with conspiratorial Jewish villains, public lectures drawing on phony scholarship like the Protocols—became staples of the new Arab culture. What Americans have been seeing after Sept. 11, we have to conclude, is hardly new. It’s only new to those who never before bothered to look. sidebar Return to article Nationalistic anti-Semitism found its most famous expression in France’s Dreyfus Affair. In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a French army captain who was Jewish, was convicted of spying for Germany and sentenced to life in prison. Dreyfus fought the conviction and eventually, in 1906, was exonerated. But in the intervening years, the question of Dreyfus’ guilt split French opinion, and the so-called “anti-Dreyfusards” marshaled anti-Semitic arguments on their behalf, shocking the liberal Dreyfusards. The raw anti-Semitism voiced by Frenchmen, including intellectuals, clergymen, and state officials, made the Jews of France question whether they could feel at home even in what was supposedly the most enlightened of nations. The Dreyfus Affair also helped foster Arab anti-Semitism, because French culture exerted a strong influence on Christian Arabs in Lebanon. sidebar Return to article Out of such pseudoscience sprang the notion that there exists some group of peoples, including Arabs and Jews, who are all “Semites.” The idea has no historical or biological basis; it’s purely a cultural construction. The notion, advanced in recent years by foes of the Jews that they cannot be anti-Semitic because they support the Arabs, who are also Semites, is thus doubly absurd: First, the notion of a “Semite” is itself a racist invention of 19th-century Europe. Second, the term anti-Semitism has been used overwhelmingly in the sense that Wilhelm Marr coined it in 1879, to apply only to the Jews. At any rate, it is preposterous to argue that hating Jews, even when accompanied by a fondness for Arabs, is anything less than racist. Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2057949/ Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC Mirror Image Studios Published in SOS February 2004 Printer-friendly version Printer-friendly version People : Industry/Music Biz An established studio in the USA is planning to rely on software that can be freely downloaded from the Internet. Are they crazy, or do Linux-based recording applications offer a real alternative to the established Windows and Mac packages? Daniel James MirrorImageHeader.s Ron Parker (left) and Dana Bailey in the control room at Mirror Image Studios. Minneapolis, Minnesota is about 400 miles north-west of Chicago. The young man who would become Bob Dylan came from around there, but probably the best known musical resident these days is Prince. Not far from the Great Lakes and the Canadian border, it gets pretty cold in winter. It's also home to a commercial recording studio which may not be as famous as Prince's Paisley Park complex, but is probably the first anywhere to depend on Linux-based software at every stage of the music production cycle. Ron Parker started Mirror Image Recording Studios around 20 years ago with brothers Dana and Bill Bailey, after they moved to the city with the bands they were in at the time. Dana Bailey also worked with Prince and The New Power Generation as MIDI and keyboard technician on two world tours. Later, NPG vocalist Rosie Gaines partnered Dana as a songwriter, creating tunes including the speed garage anthem 'Closer Than Close'. As is all too often the case, selling hundreds of thousands of records around the world did not produce proportional financial returns for the artists involved — and years later, Dana and Rosie are still waiting to be paid the royalties on that particular record. Mirror Image is based in a large late-Victorian house, where the studio is in the basement and the top three floors provide living accommodation for visting musicians. Apart from a pre-production area, there are four acoustically designed and tuned rooms in the studio — two live rooms, one control room for tracking and another for mastering. As an independent operation, the partnership maintains a schedule which is by necessity very busy, and has recorded around 400 clients in the last decade alone. Ron Parker is largely responsible for the introduction of Linux to the studio's computer systems, and fits research and testing on the new software in the gaps available between sessions. Top of page Hardware Like many medium-sized studios, Mirror Image made a gradual transition from analogue to digital, eventually ditching tape formats for the flexibility of computer-based hard disk recording. Parker explains: "We began producing with a half-inch eight-track tape machine in 1984, upgraded to one-inch 16-track and then 32 tracks of ADAT before moving into hard disks. We got started on those around 1999 with a couple of Yamaha AW4416s and Macintosh computers running Digital Performer interfaced with Mark Of The Unicorn 2408s. We're currently using a Tascam DM24 as the primary digital console, which interfaces to our computers with TDIF and ADAT." A Soundtracs Solo desk is also kept handy because of the quality of its preamps and EQs, but the AW4416s are now due to be retired from recording duties. The current Mac platform is based around a G4 machine running OS 9.2. As well as MOTU's Digital Performer, the studio runs Logic from Emagic and uses BIAS Peak as a WAV file editor. Now, a Linux system will replace the Mac at the core of the studio, offering a number of new technologies which Parker hopes will transform the way the partnership works. The main Linux machine is a dual AMD Athlon 2600+ with 1GB of RAM, plus an RME Hammerfall 9652 card with 24-channel ADAT and stereo S/PDIF I/O. The ADAT interfaces are routed via a patchbay to the DM24 console and the MOTU 2408 on the Mac system, so audio data can pass easily between the old and new systems. Mirror 2 Exterior.s Mirror Image from the outside. At any one time, 30 or 40 active jobs are stored on an ICP Vortex four-channel SCSI RAID controller, which currently hosts two RAID5 channels with a total of 10 Seagate 18GB hard drives. While Apple has only recently started to offer this technology with the Xserve RAID, these multi-disk storage systems are common in the Linux world, where they are used for instant access to all kinds of 'mission-critical' data. Parker adds: "It's common to have clients drop in unannounced during someone else's session and request a CD of their songs. I've written scripts that enable me to burn CDs for any client with three keystrokes. If I get an autoloader for the CD burner, I won't even have to get out of the chair any more." RAID systems can be configured in various ways for increased performance over a single drive or data security, but the RAID5 design is considered a good trade off between speed and hardware redundancy. If one drive fails for any reason, the work in progress should be safe. There is also an Rsync mirror (automatic backup) to a 120GB IDE hard disk in another Power PC machine to make absolutely sure that work is not lost. Once projects are finished, Parker uses a SCSI DAT drive to archive the complete set of data from the job. A fast local area network runs throughout the entire building, which means the seven musicians currently living upstairs could connect their own computer-based DAWs to the main studio RAID array and get on with their project, even when they aren't in the studio itself. This alone is potentially a massive boost to efficiency, since visiting artists will need to book the live rooms only when strictly necessary. Tasks such as reviewing, editing or adding MIDI parts to their work can now be carried out in the comfort of their own rooms, in their own time. Top of page The Linux Software The Linux environment at Mirror Image is based around the JACK low-latency audio server, the Ardour DAW and the Rosegarden MIDI + Audio sequencer (see my article on Linux and music in SOS February 2003, available on-line at www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/linuxaudio.asp). As an early user of Ardour, Parker thinks he probably produced the very first full album to be made using the program — when it wasn't even a beta version. "I knew it would be an almost intolerable technical challenge, but felt the proof of concept would be good for me and the Linux professional audio community. A feature that I really appreciate that other DAWs don't have is the Sound File Database (SFDB). It's a database interface to the file system — a useful tool for anyone who intends to use large sample libraries." Ardour has now matured to the point where Parker can consider it for more projects, although there are still a few glitches to work out as of the second beta release, which will lead to version 1.0. But the potential for efficient, stable and highly flexible technology offered by the Linux system keeps Parker motivated ("I'm no good at benchmarking, but I have put this system under some real-world stress tests and the performance is incredible"). Despite claiming to be a non-technical user when it comes to computers, Parker has been able to engage directly with Linux audio developers. Parker's many hours spent behind a mixing desk have provided useful experience that the developers need to get the software right, so it's a two-way collaboration. This partnership effort has helped the development of new applications that will complete a pure Linux setup at Mirror Image, from first take to finished CD. Top of page The Mixed Approach Of course, not many studios would ditch their existing computer setup entirely and start from scratch with Linux. In the field of networking, Free Software systems proved their worth at specific tasks such as web serving and firewalls before becoming more widely used. There's no reason to suggest that the recording industry would be any different, and so we are likely to see Linux used at first in mixed computer platform environments. Mirror Image Mark Knecht.s Mark Knecht with his Windows and Linux DAWs. Mark Knecht is using Linux and JACK with an RME HDSP 9652 interface in his Windows-based home studio in California. The recently finalised Linux driver for this card now enables access to its internal 26-channel mixer with real-time metering. Knecht explains: "I actually have three PCs in my studio: one running Pro Tools, one running Gigastudio, and a third running Gentoo Linux with JACK. The Pro Tools machine sends everything destined for speakers over its ADAT interface. It's received by the Linux box, and routed to my external D-A and on to my studio monitors by JACK. Additionally, 16 channels of Gigastudio audio are received by JACK, along with eight external audio inputs, mixed together as needed and forwarded on to Pro Tools by the HDSP 9652. "It's mostly about flexibility, and low latency — I hope the stability is proven eventually. In my setup the HDSP 9652 is really just a low-latency audio router with 26 physical inputs and 26 physical outputs. The mixing and clock control I get from Thomas Charbonnel's hdspmixer and hdspconf programs make it almost magical for me. I think this box completely replaces and improves upon some of the commercially available ADAT signal routers out there at a fraction of the cost. "I believe I will eventually be able to add a second HDSP 9652 into the box and clock them both from the same external word clock source. I'll then get a 52-physical-input, 52-output audio router with 104 software inputs, should I ever need them. I'd be able to mix 104 audio tracks in the card without using CPU overhead — just sending audio data — and hooking in low-latency Linux soft synths all on the same machine. This is way beyond where I think I could ever get with Pro Tools." Knecht seems happy with the mixed approach, and will continue to choose the best solution for his needs, regardless of platform. "I think JACK and its ability to connect together different applications and computers, and to maintain low latency while doing it, is the best thing Linux has going in the pro audio space today." Top of page Mastering The first thing that Parker noticed to be missing from Linux was a professional-quality mastering application. While there are audio editors and effects plug-ins available for Linux that can be used for mastering work, at the time there wasn't a program dedicated to the task. Parker explains why he wants to be able to control every aspect of the mastering process: "For many years we sent our mixes out of house to be mastered. I don't know how many albums we've produced over the years — maybe around 200 — and the number of demos and single songs is much more than that. In the early days, before we understood mastering, clients would complain about the results. I didn't know what the problem was. It was very stressful — I thought our mixes sucked. "A couple of years ago I got off my lazy butt and started designing and building a mastering studio. The first time I mastered a mix in the new room, I was blown away. Within several minutes I stopped working and started listening and hitting the bypass switch. Something very important happens when mastering in different rooms and with different monitors than those used for recording and mixing. The acoustical properties of the mastering room and its monitors cause entirely new stories to be told. How many inexperienced engineers feel 'fed to the wolves' when the client asks 'Why does it sound so good here but sounds like crap in my car?' I gotta raise my hand — been there, done that, don't ever want to feel that way again. Mastering has been shrouded in a mystique that's born from ignorance. I can make that claim because ignorance is my personal experience! I maintain that it's possible for any aspiring mastering engineer to learn how to achieve the sonic potential for a mix." Top of page We're JAMin Now the Linux audio community is working on a mastering tool which will work with Ardour, Rosegarden and the other JACK-enabled applications. Steve Harris, who has written many free effects for the LADSPA plug-in standard, is the lead developer on the JAMin project, the name of which stands for JACK Audio Mastering. JAMin is a software module, rather than a direct replacement for complete proprietary systems such as Sonic Solutions or SADiE. At this early stage in its development, it features 30-band and 1023-band equalisers, a spectrum analyser, a three-band peak compressor and a look-ahead brick-wall limiter. Planned additions include multi-band stereo processing, parametric EQ, a loudness maximiser, and preset and scene capabilities. While JAMin could be run on a mixed-down stereo track, it is designed for the user to be able to reach back into the multitrack mix and fix the root cause of problems that conventional mastering techniques have to work around — in real time. Mirror 3 Ardour Ardour's editor and mixer. LADSPA effects are in use here, and the user can take a snapshot of the session at any time. Parker comments: "With a multitrack source, if the kick drum is 5dB hot, we can adjust the just the kick -5dB. With stereo files as a source we might have to adjust 250Hz by -5dB, but that affects all the instruments. In our studio we export JAMin and Ardour with SSH (secure shell) and control both applications from the mastering room. The Ardour mix is routed to the control room mixer, while the stereo buss is routed via S/PDIF from the control room console to the mastering room console." Mirror Image are reusing one of their AW4416s to receive the stereo mix in the mastering room, which outputs to Mackie HR824 monitors. "If the multitrack mix needs to be adjusted, I can make changes from the control room mixing console or from within Ardour in the mastering room. So the mix is running in both rooms at the same time." As far as the user is concerned, JAMin looks a bit like a collection of VST mastering plug-ins gathered together into a single interface, but the dedicated nature of the tool should mean that CPU use is more efficient. Another benefit of basing JAMin on the JACK audio server is a flexible choice of audio sources — the inputs to JAMin could be live analogue or digital audio, or the outputs of any JACK-compatible software. Harris explains: "The design of JACK means that we can use the recording and sequencing capabilities of other tools like Ardour, Muse and Ecasound and the synchronisation facilities of JACK to allow JAMin to do the mastering without needing a complete sequencing and editing environment. You connect the outputs of your sequences or inputs of your soundcard to JAMin's inputs and you send the output of JAMin to any JACK-capable recorder. I like this because it enables me to use the familiar interface of Ardour, while doing processing that goes beyond anything that's practical with plug-ins. "There is some discussion about whether we will support direct exporting of data ready for glass mastering. Currently the easiest way is to export the JAMin-processed data from Ardour as a disc-at-once Red Book master. Allowing this to be done inside JAMin would make the final production more integrated, but would complicate the user interface and detract from the simplicity slightly." Mirror 7 Freqtweak Freq Tweak is a JACK-enabled audio spectrum manipulation tool, which allows you to visualise effects in real time using the display of choice. Harris says the collaborative development process used to create JAMin is typical of a small Free Software project. "There's a mailing list which the users and developers all subscribe to and discuss features, ideas, bugs and so on. The development work is divided up pretty naturally according to our experiences — Jan Depner and Patrick Shirkey mostly worked on the user interface, Jack O'Quin on the concurrency code and me on the DSP code. Everyone chips in and argues about what features we should or shouldn't have, and where such and such a menu should go. The input from experienced engineers was very important; feedback on features and user interface layout let us develop more quickly and made sure we were always going in the right direction. Knowing that there's lots of people waiting to use the software is always motivating too." Of course, some mastering engineers might not want to take responsibility for the state of the multitrack mix, and could resist the introduction of this sort of technology into their work. Parker isn't bothered by the prospect: "My attitude is, fine and dandy — let 'resistant' mastering engineers tell an artist who just maxed out their credit card for a $3,000 production budget that they need to return to the mixing studio to cut the kick drum by 5dB when the mixing studio costs $50 an hour and the mastering studio costs $100 an hour. I love music and working with artists and the more the artist and I accomplish, the happier I am. When I encounter 'resistance' I bristle with intolerance. "The primary drawback to the multitrack backend solution is that mastering isn't about getting one song to sound great; it's about getting 12 songs to sound great together. Ideally this would be accomplished by having all the songs on one timeline — putting 12 multitrack song sessions on one timeline isn't reasonable, but I do think there will be a solution for this." Top of page Glossary Free Software: Software that is licensed in a particular way to allow the freedom of developer collaboration and user modification, Free Software is usually offered for download from the Internet as both binary and source code at no cost, but doesn't have to be. Also known as Open Source, although just having access to source code doesn't necessarily allow you to do anything with it. GNU GPL: The GNU Project's General Public Licence, the terms and conditions under which the Linux kernel and many other Free Software projects are released. Prevents Free Software from being passed off as proprietary, using author copyright as a legal safeguard — you can't just add a few lines and pretend you own the program. JACK: Low-latency audio server software which can connect a number of different applications to an audio device, as well as allowing them to share audio streams. Client applications can run separately from the JACK server, or as plug-ins to it. JACK does a similar job to Core Audio on Mac OS X, but also benefits from deep-level system tweaks only available to users of Free Software. Linux: Usually taken to mean GNU with a Linux kernel, a UNIX-like Free Software operating system. Applications for Linux systems are often Free Software, but there are plenty of proprietary programs available for it too. Most popular on servers and in high-end computing, but becoming more widely used on desktop hardware. RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks, used to improve the data security and/or performance of a hard disk storage system. RAID is a workaround for the unfortunate fact that hard disks are mechanical and will inevitably break down from time to time. Tape storage can be an alternative for backup applications, but does not offer random access — it cannot jump instantly to the particular part of the data you want. SSH: Secure Shell is a remote control system for networked computers, which allows log-ins from one machine to appear on another. It's a bit like Telnet, only encrypted for security — otherwise, anyone on the network could potentially take over your computer. Top of page SEX Exchange It's all very well being at the cutting edge, but if Parker's setup won't work with what anyone else is using, then Mirror Image could find itself marginalised. The key problem of compatibility constrains all studio software — just like software in other industries — and tends to mean that professional users settle on the same small collection of applications, regardless of their limitations. Mirror 4 JAMin JAMin has a hand-drawn EQ feature, so you can use any curve you like. There's little point in a DAW system which allows the flexibility to get the sound right until the final stages of production if incompatibility means that engineers and producers have to work with a two-track mix in a legacy format. But the second of Parker's 'missing' applications attempts to address just this problem — and a contemporary challenge to the business model of independent studios too. Ardour developer Taybin Rutkin is working on a session exchange application originally suggested by Parker, which is being sponsored by Mirror Image. It will perform peer-to-peer exchanges of Ardour projects across the Internet, merging just the differences from either side — which should save a lot of IP bandwidth. Parker comments: "It was titled Ardour Exchange but we're thinking that because it's separate from Ardour and performs Session Exchange tasks it could be titled SEX." That should certainly get attention, although prospective users may have difficulty finding the software on search engines... "Every musician in the world has a pre-production studio in their bedroom. The small-to-medium studios are getting killed because a lot of our work is being done on computers at home. But none of these musicians has our acoustically treated rooms and recording gear at home. With SEX, musicians can do pre-production at home and then contract studios for drum overdubs, or whatever. Of course SEX will let us all be creative together too, and it will be Free Software licensed under the GNU GPL." Top of page Costs & Benefits The principal cost of Mirror Image's migration to Linux has been in Parker's time. As something of a trailblazer, his investigation and deployment of free software has probably taken much longer than the same process will for the studio owners who come after him, thanks in no small way to the effort he has put in to its development. The Internet — in particular, the mailing lists for specific Linux applications and the more general 'linux-audio-user' list — has enabled an unprecedented level of collaboration between users and developers of studio software. When asked if trying to work with Free Software has created lots of problems for the studio, Parker responds: "No problems. Challenges are another story. Linux-based solutions are highly configurable, but that capability introduces a learning curve. You probably don't have to learn a lot until you want things done your way." Mirror 5 Session Exchange Ardour Session Exchange can synchronise projects by peer-to-peer across the Internet, based on a snapshot or a finished session. Nevertheless, Parker has fitted the migration into a busy recording schedule, and has been able to reuse some computer hardware that was previously put to very different tasks. "The Digital Server case I got for free. The guy had about 40 of them and they all had HP Alpha servers with installations of the Oracle database. The loading dock had a pile of SCSI drives, SCSI controllers, network cards and other stuff that were all exposed to the rain. Referring to the stuff in the warehouse, he said 'You can have all 40 of them. I need to get rid of this crap!' "What I find encouraging about Linux based audio is the freedom —not the 'free' in the financial cost sense. In a Free Software development model, when developers don't place a priority on requested features, cash donations can be offered. These cash donations are excellent investments because they inherit the attached freedom and become available to everyone. As the user community grows, more features should be requested and paid for." However, Parker is careful not to oversell the benefits of Free Software: "I don't think Linux audio solutions are all things to all people, yet! However, I am hopeful that developments during the next couple of years will cause us to become more productive and creative than the people using proprietary software. We've used several other digital recording systems over the last 20 years. As an engineer and studio owner, the only one I am inspired to invest time and money into is Linux. I never had a software developer give me any meaningful time until I stumbled upon the Linux audio community. "With the release of Ardour beta 2, my tests convinced me that it was time to select a couple of new jobs for start-to-finish production with Linux. This also meant I would have to teach my partners how to use Ardour, JAMin and Rosegarden." Parker looks forward to Linux studio software maturing to the point where its reliability matches that of established Free Software projects. "The beta 2 version of Ardour that I am using has some routing problems, but I can probably get around them. The point is that this solution enables the simultaneous execution of numerous non-trivial audio tasks that many studios probably aren't performing. Perhaps what's most interesting is that these tasks are affordable, stable and with a little savvy technically achievable. The truth is, if I can do it, anyone can." Top of page Steadfast Networks Network Operations Center Dear Sirs The following website, http://www.realzionistnews.com/, is operating out of IP Address 67.202.84.126, an address that the whois servers say is under your jurisdiction: NetRange: 67.202.64.0 - 67.202.127.255 CIDR: 67.202.64.0/18 OriginAS: AS32748 NetName: STEADFAST-3 NetHandle: NET-67-202-64-0-1 Parent: NET-67-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Allocation NameServer: NS3.STEADFAST.NET NameServer: NS2.STEADFAST.NET NameServer: NS1.STEADFAST.NET NameServer: NS4.STEADFAST.NET Comment: Please submit all reports of abuse to Comment: abuse@steadfast.net. Reports sent to other Comment: addresses will not be processed. RegDate: 2007-08-09 Updated: 2008-07-15 Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-67-202-64-0-1 The site is virulently anti-semetic and promotes violence. Please have it taken down. Ruben Safir 1163 East 15th Street Brooklyn, NY 11230 CC Facebook CC www.mrbrklyn.com CC Google Corp Georgia and US foil uranium plot Map A Russian man who tried to sell a small piece of weapons-grade uranium has been arrested in Georgia, officials say. The man was detained in the Georgian capital Tbilisi last summer in a sting operation involving US agents, the Georgian interior minister said. Vano Merabishvili said he was giving details now because Russia had failed to co-operate over the case. The Russian was carrying 100g (3.5oz) of uranium, but had offered more. A US test confirmed it was highly enriched. Experts at the US Department of Energy examined the sample and concluded it was powerful enough to fuel part of a nuclear weapon. The man was able to transport it in a plastic bag in his pocket, the Associated Press reported, because uranium has a low level of radioactive emission. He has been identified as Oleg Khintsagov, from the southern Russian region of North Ossetia. The BBC's Matthew Collin, in Georgia, says the case raises new concerns about militants gaining access to nuclear material, particularly in conflict zones in the former Soviet Union where the rule of law is weak and corruption is widespread. Important arrest According to Mr Merabishvili, the Russian said the uranium was just a sample of a much larger amount he had available to sell. But these claims were never substantiated, US and Georgian officials indicated. Even a small number of incidents involving highly enriched uranium are of very high concern Melissa Fleming International Atomic Energy Agency Mr Merabishvili said Russia had not yet responded to an offer by Georgia to hand over information about the case. Georgian efforts to trace the nuclear material since the arrest and confirm whether the man did have access to larger quantities have foundered from a lack of cooperation from Russia, he said. "We were ready to provide all the information, but unfortunately no-one arrived from Russia, not even to interview this person," Mr Merabishvili said. "It is surprising because it is in Russian interests to secure these materials. There are terrorist organizations in Russia who would pay huge amounts of money for this." Concern Relations between Russia and Georgia have been tense in recent months, following a row about alleged spying by Russians and Moscow's expulsion of Georgian illegal workers. A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, Melissa Fleming, said the arrest was of vital importance. "Given the serious consequences of the detonation of an improvised nuclear explosive device, even small number of incidents involving HEU [highly enriched uranium] or plutonium are of very high concern," she said. Georgia said it became aware of the smuggling plot while investigating crime in the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. June 21, 2008 Land a Job, Then What? Graduates Adjust to Life With No Going Back By CARA BUCKLEY It is a bittersweet time for freshly sprung college graduates, at least those lucky enough to have landed jobs. Summer is here, with its sunny days and sultry nights, and for many young people working their first real jobs, it will be a summer reconfigured. Those who are gainfully employed may be basking in the glow of finding work in a tough market, but their joy is often tempered by a nostalgia of sorts. They are, after all, entering the first summer of the rest of their lives: the deeply ingrained cycle of school followed by summers “off” — whether that meant camp or a short-term job or an internship — is over. There is no college to return to after Labor Day, and no real end in sight. Most will be fortunate to get a week off before the warm weather ends. “You always knew that after summer, you go back to classes. And after classes, you have a summer,” said Katie Dinterman, 23, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last December and who now works at a public relations firm in Midtown Manhattan. “It’s very crazy to think that you don’t have an end point,” she said. “It definitely stresses me out.” Nearly 20,500 degree holders between the ages of 22 and 28 streamed into New York City in 2006, according to an analysis by the sociology department at Queens College, though it is unclear how many are flocking to the city this year. Ms. Dinterman said that she was thrilled to have landed work, and in New York City to boot. She started working in January, her graduation date giving her a jump on the collegiate hordes that flooded the job market at spring’s end. Still, Ms. Dinterman said she felt a little wistful for the summers when she was an intern, with fewer responsibilities and weekends and evenings that were invariably work free. She lives on the Upper East Side and is planning weekend trips “off the island,” because, like many people in the working world, she now has two weeks of vacation a year. “I’m not near a window,” Ms. Dinterman said of her office space, “So I never really know what it’s like outside.” Amanda Zalka, 22, is starting to feel a disconnection between her life and the lives of her friends. Many of them are planning long summer holidays, because they are beginning their jobs later in the summer or are still looking for work. Ms. Zalka graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia in February, and started working as an assistant account executive for an advertising agency in SoHo in March. To ease the transition to working straight through the summer, she is planning to go to “some kind of beach” every weekend, and spent a recent Sunday at Water Taxi Beach, a tiny faux beach in Queens that is separated from the East River by a chain-link fence. “When you’re in college, you have three and a half months of vacation,” said Ms. Zalka, who grew up in Budapest. “Before I did internships, I literally would go home and relax for three and a half months, and drive my mother crazy.” Still, Ms. Zalka is firmly in the honeymoon phase after gaining what she describes as an ideal job. Had she not found work, she said, her summer would have been overtaken by the stress of looking for one. “Everything is new and exciting, and it’s nice to be part of a team,” she said. “At the same time, you start to think, ‘Am I going to be able to do that for 50 years, every day, while having one week of vacation somewhere?’ This has definitely crossed my mind, but I’m not worrying about it yet.” Some recent graduates are nervous about starting full-time work. Gia Branciforte, 21, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May, is working a summer job at a nonprofit agency in Chapel Hill. She will move back to her native Queens in August to work full time at a nonprofit agency, and already feels trepidation at the prospect of vastly fewer vacation days. “I have such wanderlust,” she said. “That’s the part that makes me nostalgic, not being able to just get up and go.” Liz Clain, 21, who just graduated from Harvard, and will begin work at a health care consulting firm in Boston in August, feels a mild uneasiness, too. “I have the upcoming two months of freedom before the rest of my life,” she said. She is also thinking about going to medical school one day. “And that kind of makes it easier,” she said, “going into it knowing that I do have an end in sight.” Of course, many recent graduates are content just to have found a job and to be able to start paying off loans. “This is my second summer being out of college; I kind of had extra time to enjoy myself,” said Fabienne Carroll, 23, who recently got hired at Girlie Action, a public relations and marketing firm serving the music industry. “And yeah, I have loans to pay off. A lot.” Kai Johnson, 22, who graduated from Wesleyan University in May, is working at the Greater New York chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, a nonprofit, for the summer, and will begin teaching English in France in the fall. “I’m really excited to move on to the next chapter of my life,” he said, “although it’s hard to graduate from college and leave that behind.” Still, his summer job is part time, so he does not feel trapped, he said, at least not yet. “I’m looking at having a couple of different careers in different areas, with a couple years of commitment,” he said. “I’m not looking to having a 30- or 40-year plan.” Eavvon O’Neal, who is 23, graduated from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in May 2007, and, to his delight, started work at Pitchfork Media, a music Web site, this past March. “I couldn’t get a job until now,” he said. “I was on an extended vacation that we all don’t want to call unemployment.” His job is a perfect fit, he said, partly because he can still dress like a college student and see a lot of concerts. Indeed, his office, with its haphazardly arranged desks and piles of books and CDs, has a ramshackle air, not unlike a dorm room. Mr. O’Neal had been yearning for a job so long, he said, that the prospect of having few vacation days did not faze him in the least. “I was so looking forward to having a job that I’m not too eager to get away from it just yet,” he said. Asked whether he felt nostalgic for the breezy summers of his past, Mr. O’Neal said that he felt “kind of pensive” instead. “This is the threshold from college student to adult,” he said, “that you don’t really understand until you’ve experienced the whole thing.” 'Realism' in Syria New York Sun Editorial February 15, 2008 A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T What in the world are advisers to both Senators Obama and Clinton doing in Syria in the middle of a presidential campaign — and why are the two campaigns so unforthcoming about the details of the visits? The same week that a terrorist mastermind harbored by the Baathist regime in Damascus was assassinated by a car bomb, both one of Mr. Obama's foreign policy counselors, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a long-time critic of Israel, and one of Mrs. Clinton's national finance chairs, Hassan Nemazee, were meeting with President Assad. Mr. Brzezinski himself issued a statement to the Baathist controlled press in Damascus, where he was quoted by the official Sana News Agency as saying that the "talks dealt with recent regional developments, affirming that both sides have a common desire to achieve stability in the region, which would benefit both its people and the United States." There was no indication in respect of whether Mr. Brzezinski queried the Syrian regime, officially listed by our own State Department as a terrorist-sponsoring state, about the assassination of Hezbollah's Imadh Mugniyah, who was slain by a car-bomb as, according to the Lebanese Broadcasting Channel, he was leaving a ceremony at an Iranian school in Damascus. When our Eli Lake, telephoned the Obama campaign to see what it had to say about its adviser's doings in Syria, a spokesman said it was the first they had heard about it. Mr. Nemazee's office would not say anything about the trip, nor would Mrs. Clinton's campaign. When Mr. Lake rang the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus, he was informed that Mr. Nemazee had left with the delegation yesterday. Where is the sense of reality about who President Assad is and what his regime is all about? To suggest, as the Syrians report Mr. Brzezinski said, that they share some kind of common interest in respect of "stability" is disingenuous. Mugniyah, whom the Syrians had been harboring, has been among the FBI's most-wanted terrorists since 1983, when he authorized the attack on the American Marine barracks in Beirut. Mr. Assad runs a police state. Dictatorships can only thrive if the population is in constant terror and convinced the state itself is all knowing. This has lead some to speculate that the Syrian regime itself might have been complicit in the killing of Mugniyah. We wouldn't gainsay the possibility entirely. Terrorists like drug dealers and mafiosos fight over turf all the time. What we would gainsay is that a benign construction could be put onto the role of the Assad family's Baathist regime in Syria. If the assassination of Mugniyah is a sign of anything, it is most likely that the Baathist regime is itself losing its grip on power. After all Mugniyah was a valuable asset for Mr. Assad, who relied on his capabilities to continue to threaten the prospect of a stable Lebanon. * * * So where's the "realism" on the part of Mr. Brzezinski and other so-called foreign policy "realists," who have accused President Bush of foreign policy malpractice for downgrading relations with Syria after the Syrians threw in with the Iranians to sabotage Iraq? Why are advisers to Senators Clinton and Obama in the Syrian capital at a time like this? Are they pressing for a separate peace with the regime? It is something on which Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton will be challenged in the coming campaign, we have little doubt. Where do they stand in respect of Syria — and why can't they bring themselves to explain what their advisers are doing in the capital of one of the countries most hostile to America and Israel? October 13, 2010 Searching for Crumbs in Syria’s Breadbasket By ROBERT F. WORTH AR RAQQAH, Syria — The farmlands spreading north and east of this Euphrates River town were once the breadbasket of the region, a vast expanse of golden wheat fields and bucolic sheep herds. Now, after four consecutive years of drought, this heartland of the Fertile Crescent — including much of neighboring Iraq — appears to be turning barren, climate scientists say. Ancient irrigation systems have collapsed, underground water sources have run dry and hundreds of villages have been abandoned as farmlands turn to cracked desert and grazing animals die off. Sandstorms have become far more common, and vast tent cities of dispossessed farmers and their families have risen up around the larger towns and cities of Syria and Iraq. “I had 400 acres of wheat, and now it’s all desert,” said Ahmed Abdullah, 48, a farmer who is living in a ragged burlap and plastic tent here with his wife and 12 children alongside many other migrants. “We were forced to flee. Now we are at less than zero — no money, no job, no hope.” The collapse of farmlands here — which is as much a matter of human mismanagement as of drought — has become a dire economic challenge and a rising security concern for the Syrian and Iraqi governments, which are growing far more dependent on other countries for food and water. Syria, which once prided itself on its self-sufficiency and even exported wheat, is now quietly importing it in ever larger amounts. The country’s total water resources dropped by half between 2002 and 2008, partly through waste and overuse, scientists and water engineers say. For Syria, which is running out of oil reserves and struggling to draw foreign investment, the farming crisis is an added vulnerability in part because it is taking place in the area where its restive Kurdish minority is centered. Iraq, devastated by war, is now facing a water crisis in both the north and the south that may be unprecedented in its history. Both countries have complained about reduced flow on the Euphrates, thanks to massive upriver dam projects in Turkey that are likely to generate more tension as the water crisis worsens. The four-year drought in Syria has pushed two million to three million people into extreme poverty, according to a survey completed here this month by the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter. Herders in the country’s northeast have lost 85 percent of their livestock, and at least 1.3 million people have been affected, he reported. An estimated 50,000 more families have migrated from rural areas this year, on top of the hundreds of thousands of people who fled in earlier years, Mr. De Schutter said. Syria, with a fast-growing population, has already strained to accommodate more than a million Iraqi refugees in the years since the 2003 invasion. “It is ironic: this region is the origin of wheat and barley, and now it is among the biggest importers of these products,” said Rami Zurayk, a professor of agricultural and food science at the American University in Beirut who is writing a book on the farming crisis. The drought has become a delicate subject for the Syrian government, which does not give foreign journalists official permission to write about it or grant access to officials in the Agriculture Ministry. On the road running south from Damascus, displaced farmers and herders can be seen living in tents, but the entrances are closely watched by Syrian security agents, who do not allow journalists in. Droughts have always taken place here, but “the regional climate is changing in ways that are clearly observable,” said Jeannie Sowers, a professor at the University of New Hampshire who has written on Middle East climate issues. “Whether you call it human-induced climate change or not, much of the region is getting hotter and dryer, combined with more intense, erratic rainfall and flooding in some areas. You will have people migrating as a result, and governments are ill prepared.” The Syrian government has begun to acknowledge the scale of the problem and has developed a national drought plan, though it has not yet been put in place, analysts say. Poor planning helped create the problem in the first place: Syria spent $15 billion on misguided irrigation projects between 1988 and 2000 with little result, said Elie Elhadj, a Syrian-born author who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the topic. Syria continues to grow cotton and wheat in areas that lack sufficient water — making them more vulnerable to drought — because the government views the ability to produce those crops as part of its identity and a bulwark against foreign dependence, analysts say. Illegal water drills can be seen across Syria and Iraq, and underground water tables are dropping at a rate that is “really frightening,” said Mr. De Schutter, the United Nations expert. There are no reliable nationwide statistics, and some analysts and Western diplomats say they believe the Syrian government is not measuring them. As in other countries across the Arab world, corruption and failed administration are often to blame. “A lot of powerful people don’t abide by the regulations, and nobody can tame them,” said Nabil Sukkar, a Damascus-based economic analyst. In Ar Raqqah, many displaced farmers talk about wells running dry, and turning polluted. “My uncle’s well used to be 70 meters deep, now it’s 130 meters and now the water became salty, so we closed it down,” said Khalaf Ayed Tajim, a stocky sheep herder and farmer who heads a local collective for displaced northerners. He left his native village 60 miles from here when half of his herd died off and his fields dried up, and now lives in a concrete bunker with his 17 children, two wives, and his mother. In Iraq, 100,000 people had been displaced as of a year ago, according to a United Nations report. More than 70 percent of the ancient underground aqueducts have dried up and been abandoned in the past five years, the report said. Since then, the situation has only worsened. “We saw whole villages buried in sand,” said Zaid al-Ali, an Iraqi-born lecturer at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris who returned in August from a survey of water and farm conditions in Kirkuk and Salahuddin Provinces, in northern Iraq. “Their situation is desperate.” Southern Iraq has seen similar farming collapses, with reduced river flow from the Euphrates and the drying up of the once vast southern marshes. Syrian officials say they expect to get help from water-rich Turkey, which has recently become a close ally after years of frosty relations. But it may be too late to save the abandoned villages of northern Syria and Iraq. “At first, the migrations were temporary, but after three or four years, these people will not come back,” said Abdullah Yahia bin Tahir, the United Nations Food and Agriculture representative in Damascus. “Back in the village, our houses are covered in dust; it’s as if they’d been destroyed,” said Mr. Tajim, the farmer who moved here two years ago. “We would love to go back, but how? There is no water, no electricity, nothing.” Hwaida Saad contributed reporting. A Little Too Close to the Battle in Kabul By DEXTER FILKINS Adam Ferguson for The New York Times Afghan security officers took cover while a market burned and gunfire was exchanged during an attack by militants in Kabul on Monday. KABUL, Afghanistan — The man with the bulging shawl had only just exploded when the real battle got under way. The scene shifted quickly, like a movie reel sped up: The suicide bomber, stopped from entering Afghanistan’s Central Bank, burst into pieces at its footsteps. Six surviving gunmen, who had wanted to follow their comrade inside, dashed instead into a shopping center and let loose from the rooftop with rifles and grenades. And hundreds of commandos with the Afghan government swarmed to the scene and opened fire. NYT_VideoPlayerStart({playerType:"blog",videoId:"1247466606737",adxPagename:"atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/video"}); For the next two hours the battle unfolded with cinematic vividness at the very heart of Afghanistan’s American-backed government. Waves of commandos encircled and fired and blasted the gang of guerrillas inside. The guerrillas fired back with equal ferocity, and with the knowledge, surely, that they were going to die. Children and old men and office workers ran stricken in waves. In the cacophony it was hard to know what to do. “Should I abandon my post?” an Afghan soldier shouted into his radio. “Stay!” his commander barked back, guns booming all around. “Stay at your post and fight!” The war in Afghanistan does not come often to its capital. By and large the fight unfolds in the countryside, where the insurgents are, where the people live. For a capital at war, Kabul on most days is a remarkably quiet place, with daily life unfolding in its ordinary way. In this respect, it differs vastly from the capital city of that other American war, Baghdad, where the guerrillas and terrorists and government soldiers fought and died every morning for years. Yet there the insurgents were, not 50 yards from the palace of President Hamid Karzai, trying to fight their way into one of the country’s most important institutions. They’d come wrapped in baggy shawls, under which they’d hidden their guns and grenades and suicide vests. First dozens, then hundreds of Afghans rolled toward the fight, some in uniform, some in slacks, some with polished American gear, some with the rusting antiquated junk left behind from the Soviet epoch. And they fought. The Afghan soldiers were undisciplined and chaotic, but no one flinched and everyone fired. They rushed to the battle like kids to a school yard brawl. After three decades of uninterrupted warfare, that’s the way it is here. “I ran out of ammo in there,” an Afghan soldier yelled at his comrade as he rushed out of the Faroshga market, where the militants were holed up. “You’re supposed to be my friend and you didn’t bring me anymore ammo.” “I’ve got nothing left,” his buddy said. Then, about an hour into the fighting, another explosion rocked the streets not a mile away. The ground trembled as if in an earthquake. In the heat of the fight, many soldiers thought they were being ambushed from the rear. But when they turned and looked up the street, they saw another wave of terrified civilians, running not away but to them. The bullets came close, whizzing past too fast for me to think. I crouched behind an iron wall, pressing the thing for a cover, and an Afghan officer looked down at me with a mixture of bewilderment and rage. “We have come here to die,” the officer said, shaking his head. “But why on earth are you here?” After three hours the shooting began to die down. Another wave of civilians ran out, this one bank tellers and shopkeepers who had been trapped inside. They had cell phones to their ears; they were calling home. “That was my mom,” said Mohammed Ayub, a young bank teller, puffing and smiling. “She’s happy now.” And then, finally, it was over, or nearly so. The Faroshga market burned and belched. The soldiers dragged two slain militants onto the sidewalk for display. One of the guerrillas lay under a wet red blanket, the other beneath a black garbage bag. A soldier lifted the blanket, revealing a lifeless face cleaved wide open. The skin was pale, the hair black and the eyes wide open. “Pakistani,” a man said. But there was no way to know. Irina Usherenko Assistant Director of Pharmacy Long Island College Hospital October 9Th, 2007 Subject: Pharmacy Technician Issues Within an evaluation period of about 2 months, and with particular focus on activities over the last 2 weeks, creeping problems with the non-professional staff have thwarted efforts to provide optimal patient care within the hospital. Outlined within this memo is not just specific examples of failings of the technician staff and messengers to cover assignments adequately, but also addresses an underlining motivational problem within the staff which need to be addressed in order to prevent the Pharmacy from having to overcome increasing numbers of events which are truly symptoms of the same motivational problems. The non-professional staff, from top to bottom, fails to accept or understand the supervisory role of the pharmacist and their submissive organizational position. Likewise, this impression on the part of the non-professional staff is reinforced by a refusal of some of our pharmacist to adequately use their authority or to supervise activities in the pharmacy. This later issue will be discussed at a later time. Here I'd like to focus on the first problem: IE non-professional staff insubordination. Previously I've documented for the Pharmacy Management staff specific failures in the stocking of the Emergency Departments Medication Rooms, specifically the IV antibiotics, which I've needed to stock myself. In addition, I discussed with Mike the particularly upsetting incident involving Diva in the morning when she clocked in, spent a half hour in the locker room while the phones were ringing, and then when I tracked her down and asked her if she clocked in yet (it was 8:30 in the morning) she said yes she did and what's it my business. Since then I've had a number of other incidents including Amy questioning my enforcement of pharmacy policy with regard to the ER, repeated loading of software on computers used by technicians, the refusal to go to theER by Barry to check the status of tetanus toxoid with Diphtheria stating that it was the day shifts job, a clearly stated reluctance by Barry to help fill a few hours of emergency drugs for the 9th floor when they locked themselves out of the medication rooms, refusal of Jackie and Amy at different times this week to prepack IV antibiotics towards the end of their shift causing me to have to make them in the middle of the night, and finally, the battle to get the overnight technicians to make the delivery schedule as expressed by Suzanne, especially when I have 2 techs on duty. Overall, the foot dragging is exasperating, the refusals to take instruction simply unacceptable, the inappropriate comments frustrating, and particularly Jackie is spending a lot time while on the clock having secret conversations within the Pharmacy with Barry, and with Amy and others gossiping over who knows what, but evidently focused on some kind of lack of job satisfaction. Often Barry and Jackie can talk for a half hour before he actually works, and Jackie never ever does any significant work in the final hour plus of her shift. Coupled with this, specifically, there is an impression among the non-professional staff that that they have locked in job descriptions and a set limited number of tasks, beyond which they will not take instruction or do extra duty. This Pharmacy has more than enough work to be done, but the end of shifts finds technicians watching movies on the computers, gossiping as a group, and leaving important tasks which are not part of their specific routines to be left undone. On the overnight shift, for example, Barry is almost solely focused on the cart fill and a regimented amount of bulk packing of IV's and crash cart filling (along with the narcotic inventory). And while filling that cart is important, I need him to proactively respond to a whole plethora of other critically important activities. Most importantly the technicians must be an extension of my eyes, ears and arms in the pharmacy and on the floors. If it is deemed appropriate, I need the Pharmacy Management to help change the expectations of the non-professional staff and to forcefully make clear the expected role of such staff. Additionally, on the overnight we are obligated, to my understanding, to make deliveries overnight every 2 hours. That would be a schedule of 12AM, 2AM, 4AM, and 6AM. The technicians, especially when there are two technicians on duty, must make a midnight and 4AM delivery, in addition to making a 2AM delivery those times when the hospital transport is unable to comply reasonably to the schedule. I need a memo to this affect from the directors office or from one of the assistant directors. Secondly, a memo is needed addressing the general authority of the professional staff to direct non-professional staff as needed. Such a memo should state something to the affect of, "State Law and hospital policy gives a fiduciary responsibility to professional pharmacists in the running of the hospital pharmacy. Non-professional staff, Pharmacy Technicians, Messengers and others, while working on the pharmacy floor, are expected to consider requests and instructions from any Pharmacist as supervisory instruction as it would if it came from the Pharmacy Managements office. Technicians, in addition to their unit assignments and work schedules, are expected to support the Pharmacists in their professional duties in a fully cooperative manner. In addition, the comings and goings of non-professional staff, when going on breaks, lunch, or heading to floors, should be done with the coordination of the Pharmacists working on the floor, and not independent of them. Any conflict resulting from this policy should be later addressed to management after complying with any reasonable directive, reasonable being defined as any order which is issued within the scope of state law, patient safety and hospital policy." Thank You for your attention to this matter Ruben Safir RPh LICH Staff Pharmacist Brooklyn, USA [Beat.... Happening In Technology] Shooting Blanks Growing digital rights movement needs to put some political heads on stakes -- fast Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, April 22, 2002 Earlier this month, two prominent members of the open-source-software community, Jeff Gerhardt, host of the online "Linux Show," and Doc Searls, senior editor of The Linux Journal, announced the formation of a sorely needed new lobbying group they've dubbed GeekPAC. The group's organizing manifesto has been posted online for public comment. Its opening pages masterfully detail the interrelated technical and business issues that are helping to hobble the high-tech economy. Ticking them off one by one, it lists the top 13 obstacles facing the high-tech community, and explains how in each area, narrow corporate interests are using the federal government to erect roadblocks that are slowing down the pace of innovation and economic growth. The primary goal of all these efforts, they note, is to preserve the profit streams of a handful of big media companies, even if it means stopping technological progress dead in its tracks. The problem here is the anemic effort GeekPAC's founders have proposed to deal with these concerns, which involves little more than a public-relations campaign similar to those that have already been mounted by several other high-tech lobbying groups that Congress regularly ignores. In short, they know what needs to be done; they just don't know how to do it. There is a better approach GeekPAC could take, but before we get to that, let's review what's at stake. The issues GeekPAC seeks to address include the full alphabet soup of acronyms that regularly draw hisses at information-technology gatherings, most notably the DMCA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act), UCITA (the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act), CARP (the Copyright Arbitration and Royalty Panel), and the CBDTPA, South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings' ridiculously misnamed Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, the latest salvo from the recording, movie and television industry. It's hard to say which of these draconian new or proposed laws and regulations are worse. One of them (the DMCA) has already criminalized software development -- in particular, the release of new software that decrypts encoded recordings. It's as if the government banned saws because they can be used to cut into someone's house. As a consequence, software developers who experiment with new approaches to decryption, which could lead to progress in other critical business-related software areas, now do so at the risk of being thrown into jail. CARP, meanwhile, promises to put fledgling online broadcasters out of business by imposing royalty fees that competing traditional broadcasters, who have better lobbyists, don't have to pay. What really has the GeekPAC founders steamed, though, is Hollings' most recent entertainment-industry-backed proposal, which would mandate that all future home-entertainment electronic devices and computers contain "rights management" technology patented by Microsoft. If Hollings' legislation becomes law, new computers and other electronic devices could play back only digital transmissions they're authorized to receive. The content providers would also get control over when and how many times their programs could be viewed. As a result, consumers would lose the ability to decide which digital goods they want to copy, when they can copy them, when they can listen to or view programs or recordings they have purchased and who they can share them with. "They want to lock down the Internet and replace it with a 'content-delivery system' designed for little more than delivering digital-rights-managed media streams to passive couch potatoes," write Gerhardt and Searls in summing up the recent onslaught of corporate-sponsored so-called antipiracy legislation. They also wonder out loud why the $600 billion-a-year information-technology sector is letting itself get pushed around by the $20 billion-a-year entertainment industry. The answer to that question seems pretty obvious. The IT industry is getting pushed around because it isn't pushing back. Unfortunately, GeekPAC's proposed approach promises to continue that sorry trend. Current plans call for the group to raise $200,000 to support lobbying efforts, as well as a related public-education group they're calling the American Open Technology Consortium. According to the group's working paper, the money will be used to create a "dream team" of "geek spokespeople" who will "travel across the country on a whistle-stop campaign" to educate government leaders about the dangers of choking off technical innovation. Most of the group's money, they say, will be spent on lobbying staff. Yup. You heard that right. Frequent-flying geeks to the rescue. More than living up to its name, this call to action by GeekPAC also suggests that the group "can have a significant influence by providing a funding channel tool of small but frequent donations through a congressional-review database linked to an [e]-commerce engine." Put into English, that means members of Congress will get a small check for their campaigns whenever they vote right. The problem with that approach, however, is that sending out small checks to hundreds of politicians is like peeing in the ocean. It may feel good, but no one notices. Instead, to stem the tide, GeekPAC, or some other similar organization, needs to make an example out of someone in Congress, and do it quick. When the National Rifle Association, or the Christian Coalition or Emily's List, for that matter, want action on an issue, the strategists behind those well-run groups usually pick a smart fight with one or more of their key opponents. They target their resources to just those specific races, sometimes to just one race. Rather than give 200 politicians $1,000 each, the savviest PACs instead will spend $200,000 or more kicking the bejesus out of just one single office holder. The tactic puts all the other office holders on notice that if they step out of line, or tilt too far in the wrong direction, they could be next. A few hundred thousand dollars spread across the nation won't do much to get the digital rights message across. But poured into a single well-chosen congressional or senatorial district, it could make all the difference. Here's the winning message an ad in such a campaign might convey: "Did you know that Senator Bumblehead wants to get inside your house and make it illegal for you to copy movies, TV or radio programs? If he wins, you lose. You'll lose the right to control what takes place in your own living room and in your office. The economy will lose, too, because technology will be permanently frozen in place so a handful of big entertainment firms can preserve their profits and their antiquated ways of doing business. There is an alternative, though. You can join together with other consumers and entrepreneurs to make sure that this time, Senator Bumblehead is the loser. " Targeting a handful of specific lawmakers for defeat makes a lot more sense than putting a bunch of geeks on planes. It's also a much better way to get other legislators to pay closer attention to the complicated technical and legal issues involved. Put just one or two notches on the high-tech pistol by actually defeating some of the industry's biggest adversaries, and we might finally see the beginning of the end of the bought-and-paid-for legislation that is rapidly killing off the high-tech growth engine. If and when GeekPAC's founders figure out that part of the equation, I'll be sending them my check. WHO INVENTED THE EQUALS SIGN? Professor Robin Wilson In my last lecture I described the development of Islamic ideas in southern Europe, up to the founding of the universities in Western Europe. I’ll now continue the story by looking at mathematics in the Renaissance, starting with Renaissance art, and continuing with navigation, the calendar, the invention of printing, and some interesting developments in algebra. Renaissance art One notable feature of Renaissance painting was that, seemingly for the first time, painters became interested in depicting three-dimensional objects realistically, giving visual depth to their works, as contrasted with earlier works such as the Bayeux tapestry where such depth is not to be found. This soon led to the formal study of geometrical perspective. The first person to investigate perspective seriously was the artisan-engineer Filipo Brunelleschi, who had designed the self-supporting octagonal cupola of the cathedral in Florence. Brunelleschi’s ideas were developed by his friend Leon Battista Alberti, who presented mathematical rules for correct perspective painting and stated in his Della pittura [On painting] that ‘the first duty of a painter is to know geometry’. Piero della Francesca was another who investigated mathematical perspective. In particular, he used a perspective grid in his investigations into solid geometry, and wrote books on the perspective of painting and the five regular solids. This 1472 picture, his Madonna and child with saints, shows his mastery of perspective. Another work of the time was a 1509 book On divine proportion on regular polygons and polyhedra by Piero’s friend Luca Pacioli, whom we’ll meet again later. The woodcuts of polyhedra for this book were prepared by Pacioli’s student Leonardo da Vinci, who explored perspective more deeply than any other Renaissance painter, and whose notebooks contain much of mathematical interest. In his treatise on painting, da Vinci warns ‘Let no one who is not a mathematician read my work’. Albrecht Dürer was a celebrated German artist and engraver who learned perspective from the Italians and introduced it to Germany. He produced a number of drawings showing how to realise perspective, and his famous engravings, such as St Jerome in his study, show his effective use of it. His Melencolia is also well known, and features a number of mathematical items, such as a truncated tetrahedron and a 4 × 4 magic square in which the date of the engraving (1514) appears in the middle of the bottom row. The age of exploration The Renaissance coincided with the great sea voyages of Vasco da Gama, Columbus and others. Portuguese explorers sailed south and east, with Vasco da Gama becoming the first European to sail around the tip of Africa and reach the west coast of India. Meanwhile, their rivals the Spanish headed west, hoping to reach India by circumnavigating the globe. From 1492 Christopher Columbus, a navigator of genius, led four royal Spanish expeditions to pioneer a western route to the Indies. His expeditions reached, not India, but the new lands of North and Central America, the West Indies, and the coast of Venezuela. Such nautical explorations made necessary the construction of accurate maps and globes and led to major developments in map-making. Around 1500 European navigators rediscovered Ptolemy’s Geographia and his maps came to be used extensively by navigators. Ptolemy’s writings contained detailed discussions of projections for map-making and included a ‘world map’ featuring Europe, Africa and Asia as well as many detailed regional maps. With the invention of printing, woodcut copies could easily be mass-produced and a number of editions appeared in the sixteenth century, each one revised to take account of new explorations. But solving the problem of accurately representing the spherical earth on a flat sheet of paper was not easy, and this led to new types of map projection – most notably the Mercator projection, named after Gerard Mercator. The first ‘modern’ maps of the world were due to him, and he coined the word ‘atlas’ for his three-volume collection of maps in 1585–95. Roughly speaking, the Mercator projection can be obtained by projecting the sphere outwards on to a vertical cylinder and then stretching the map in the vertical direction in such a way that the lines of latitude (horizontal) and longitude (vertical) appear as straight lines, and all of the angles (compass directions) are correct. In connection with this, one of the first Europeans to apply mathematical techniques to cartography was Pedro Nunes, Royal cosmographer and the leading figure in Portuguese nautical science. Nunes constructed an instrument for measuring fractions of a degree, and showed how to represent the path of a ship on a fixed bearing as a straight line called a rhumb line or loxodrome. Terrestrial and celestial globes were also used to represent the positions of geographical and astronomical features. During the sixteenth century, with the new interest in exploration and navigation, these became increasingly in demand. Such explorations also necessitated the construction of appropriate navigational instruments to measure the altitude of heavenly bodies, such as the sun or the pole star, so as to determine latitude at sea. We’ve already encountered some of these, such as the astrolabe, which reached its maturity during the Islamic period and took many complicated forms. For navigational purposes a more basic and sturdy version was needed, and this became known as the mariner’s astrolabe. There were also armillary spheres, usually made of metal circles representing the main circles of the universe, and used to measure celestial coordinates or for instructional purposes. Quadrants were in use in Europe from around the thirteenth century. As their name suggests, quadrants have the shape of a quarter-circle (90°); their relations, the sextant and octant, similarly correspond to a sixth (60°) and an eighth (45°) of a circle. To measure an object’s altitude, the observer views the object along the top edge of the instrument and the position of a movable rod on the circular rim gives the desired altitude. Some years earlier, the Jewish mathematician and astronomer Levi ben Gerson had invented the Jacob’s staff, or cross-staff, for measuring the angular separation between two celestial bodies. Although widely used, it had a major drawback – to measure the angle between the sun and the horizon one had to look directly at the sun. The back-staff is a clever modification in which a navigator can use the instrument with his back to the sun. Somewhat more complicated was an attractive astronomical instrument gilt brass compendium of 1568, designed by Humfrey Cole for the wealthy collector. Among the towns whose latitude is included is Oxford at 51 degrees, 50 minutes. Calendars Before the time of the Romans many different calendars were in use. As early as 4000 BC the Egyptians used a 365-day solar-based calendar of twelve 30-day months and five extra days added by the god Thoth. The Greek, Chinese and Jewish lunar-based calendars consisted of 354 days with extra days added at intervals, while the early Roman year had just 304 days. In 700 BC this was extended to 355 days, with the addition of the two new months Januarius and Februarius. In 45 BC Julius Caesar introduced his ‘Julian calendar’. This had 365¼ days, the fraction being taken care of by adding an extra ‘leap day’ every four years. The beginning of the year was moved to January and the lengths of the months alternated between 30 and 31 days (apart from a 29-day February in leap years); this was later changed by Augustus Caesar who stole a day from February to add to August and altered September to December accordingly. Later writers determined the length of the solar year with increasing accuracy. In particular, the Islamic scholars Omar Khayyam and Ulugh Beg independently measured it as about 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes – just a few seconds out. The Julian year was thus 11 minutes too long, and by 1582 the calendar had drifted by ten days with respect to the seasons. In that year Pope Gregory XIII issued an Edict of Reform, removing the extra days. He corrected the over-length year by omitting three leap days every 400 years, so that 2000 was a leap year, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. The Gregorian calendar was quickly adopted by the Catholic World and other countries eventually followed suit: Protestant Germany and Denmark in 1700, Britain and the American colonies in 1752, Russia in 1917, and China in 1949. Meanwhile, the line from which time is measured (0° longitude) was located at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1884, giving rise to an international date line near Tonga. In 1972, atomic time replaced earth time as the official standard, and the year was officially measured as 290,091,200,500,000,000 oscillations of atomic caesium. The invention of printing Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press (around 1440) revolutionised mathematics, enabling classic mathematical works to be widely available for the first time. Previously, scholarly works, such as the classical texts of Euclid, Archimedes and Apollonius had been available only in manuscript form, but the printed versions made these works much more widely available. At first the new books were printed in Latin or Greek for the scholar, and many scholarly editions appeared. The earliest printed version of Euclid’s Elements, published in Venice in 1482, and there is an attractive 1492 edition of Ptolemy’s Almagest. Apollonius’s Conics appeared in 1537, and seven years later the works of Archimedes were published in both Latin and Greek, and there was a celebrated edition of Diophantus’s Arithmetic in 1621, reissued in 1670, with the Greek text, a Latin translation by Bachet, and comments by Fermat, including his famous marginal comment on the ‘last theorem’. No doubt because of all these translations, there was a resurgence of interest in Greek mathematics in the sixteenth century, stimulated in particular by the massive publishing programmes of two mathematicians in Italy – Federigo Commandino and Francesco Maurolico. Maurolico translated and reconstructed works of Apollonius, Archimedes, Aristotle, Ptolemy and others, while Commandino edited Latin versions of all these and also Euclid, Aristarchus and Pappus. These editions were all in Latin or Greek, for the scholar. But increasingly, vernacular works began to appear at a price accessible to all: If cunning latin books were translate Into english well correct and approbate All subtle science in english might be learned As well as other people in their own tongues did. The new printed vernacular works included introductory texts in arithmetic, algebra and geometry, as well as practical works designed to prepare young men for a commercial career. Important among the former was the 1494 Summa de arithmetica, geometrica, proportioni et proportionalita of Luca Pacioli, a 600-page vernacular compilation of the arithmetic, algebra and geometry known at the time; it is remembered for containing the first published account of double-entry bookkeeping. Particularly important for commerce at the time were the vernacular commercial arithmetics, cont aining computational rules and tables to help with financial transactions. In Germany the most influential of these was by Adam Riese; it proved so reputable that the phrase ‘nach Adam Riese’ [after Adam Riese] came to indicate a correct calculation. In Oxford the earliest books with any mathematical content to be published were in Latin. The first was the attractive Compotus of 1520, which included rules for calculating the date of Easter on one’s fingers. Another book with Oxford connections was by Cuthbert Tonstall, an Oxford scholar who migrated to Cambridge to develop what would soon become a thriving mathematical community there. His 1522 De arte supputandi was the first major arithmetic text to be published in England, and was the best of its time. The invention of printing also led to the gradual standardisation of mathematical notation. In particular, the arithmetical symbols + and – first appeared in a 1489 arithmetic text by Johann Widmann. Surprisingly, the symbols × and ÷ were not in general use until the seventeenth century – we’ll see how × developed shortly; the division sign ÷ was introduced by John Pell. Needless to say, the quality of the mathematical printing in those days was very variable. Here we see two version of Pascal’s arithmetical triangle from the same year, 1545: Stifel’s publisher was having a good day, while Scheubelius was less fortunate. Tunstall was not the only migrant from Oxford to Cambridge – such migrations were common in both directions. Most well known of these was Robert Record, probably the most important writer of textbooks in English. He studied at All Souls in Oxford, studied mathematics and medicine in Cambridge, and later became physician to Edward VI and Queen Mary in London before being thrown into jail for debt. Record was such a fine lecturer that his audience regularly applauded his lectures. We don’t know what he looked like. For a long time, there was only one known picture of him, but recently severe doubts have been raised as to its authenticity. One might well ask: ‘Is this a Record?’ Record’s books were written in English, and ran to many editions. The ground of artes of 1543 was an arithmetic book explaining the various rules so simply that ‘everie child can do it’. As with all his books, it was written in the form of a Socratic dialogue between a scholar and his master. It also explains how to carry out multiplication. To multiply 8 by 7, for example, we write them on the left, and opposite we subtract each from 10 to give 2 and 3. Now 8 – 3 (or 7 – 2) is 5 and 3 ´ 2 = 6, so we get 56. The cross eventually shrank and became the multiplication sign we use today. Record’s other books included the Castle of knowledge (on astronomy), the Pathway to knowledge (on geometry), the Whetstone of witte (on algebra), and my favourite, his delightfully-named book on medicine, the Urinal of physic. As I said before, the production of books was rapidly leading to a standardisation in terminology and notation. Record introduced several entertaining terminologies that didn’t catch on, such as sharp and blunt corners for acute and obtuse angles, touch line for a tangent, and threelike for an equilateral triangle, but he also introduced the term straight line, which is still used. Record’s most celebrated piece of notation made its first appearance in the Whetstone of witte of 1557. Here we find the first appearance of our equals sign: And to avoide the tediouse repetition of these woordes: is equalle to: I will sette as I doe often in woorde use, a parre of paralleles, o: Gemowe lines of one lengthe, thus: == because noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle. These improvements in notation went hand in hand with developments in calculation. Decimal fractions had taken many centuries to become established throughout Europe. In the late fifteenth century the Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin wrote a popular book De thiende [The tenth] that explained decimal fractions, advocated their widespread use for everyday calculation, and proposed a decimal system of weights and measures. This work and its translations into other languages really seemed to do the trick at last. Stevin also wrote an important treatise on statics that included the first explicit use of the triangle of forces. The first English edition of Euclid’s Elements was published in 1570 by Henry Billingsley, a former Oxford student who managed to combine being a translator of Euclid with being a prosperous London merchant. He later became Lord Mayor of London and Member of Parliament for the City. His book owes its success partly to the fact that it later became adopted as a manual at Gresham College. Billingsley’s Euclid opened with a ‘very fruitfull Praeface, specifying the chiefe Mathematicall Sciences’, written by the alchemist, astrologer and mathematician John Dee. In his far-reaching and influential preface Dee classified the mathematical arts and sciences, particularly arithmetic and geometry, into nineteen categories which he then discussed. However, the science of this period was increasingly that of merchants and craftsmen, rather than of Euclid and the ancient texts. As we’ve seen, many of the new books were commercial arithmetics, containing computational rules and tables to help with financial transactions, while others involved practical skills, such as surveying. And by the late sixteenth century, books on navigation appeared regularly, such as Thomas Blundeville’s A new and necessarie treatise of navigation containing all the chiefest principles of the Arte. Around this time, the mathematical practitioner Thomas Harriot appeared on the scene, possibly the greatest English mathematician that ever lived, with extensive writings on geometry and exciting new work on algebra. He is also remembered for helping Walter Ralegh to survey and colonise the part of America now called Virginia. Harriot busied himself with every aspect of navigational theory and practice, and his success is described in a letter sent to Sir Walter Ralegh: Ever since you perceived that skill in the navigator’s art might attain its splendour amongst us if the aid of the mathematical sciences were enlisted, you have maintained in your household Thomas Harriot, a man pre-eminent in those studies, in order that by his aid your own sea-captains might link theory and practice, not without almost incredible results. Harriot worked extensively in geometry, trigonometry, algebra and combinatorics, and has been called the founder of the English algebra school. To him we owe the symbols for < and >, a 2 and a 3, and the cube root sign. Almost all his work is in manuscript, which is still being worked through. But although he published very little, his posthumous algebra book Artis analyticae praxis was very influential. Cubic equations This discussion of Harriot brings us to our last topic for today – the solution of equations. Last time we saw how Islamic scholars, such as al-Khwarizmi and Omar Khayyam, gave geometrical versions of the ancient Mesopotamian method for solving particular quadratic equations. However, very little progress had been made on solving cubic equations, even though these arise in two of the ancient Greek classical problems – doubling the cube and trisecting the angle. Omar Khayyam discussed equations in general, going from roots and squares to cubes, and proceeding to square squares, square cubes, and so on. He then systematically classified cubic equations and attempted to solve one of the form a solid cube plus squares plus edges equal to a number (x 3 + ax 2 + bx = c) by intersecting a conic with a hyperbola. However, little progress was made, and even around 1500 Pacioli and others were pessimistic about solving cubics. There then follows one of the most celebrated stories in the history of mathematics. The context is Italian mathematics of the early sixteenth century, at a time when academics in the universities had no job security, frequently having to renew their positions on a yearly basis. To do so they resorted to public problem-solving contests in which they proved their superiority over other possible contenders – often, the winner would have to provide thirty dinners for the loser and several of his friends – a sizeable sum. In the early sixteenth century, Scipione del Ferro, a mathematics professor at the University of Bologna, found a general method for solving cubics of the form a cube and things equal to numbers – that is, x 3 + cx = d. Much later he revealed his method to his pupil Antonio Fior. After del Ferro’s death in 1526, Fior felt free to exploit his secret, and challenged Niccolo of Brescia, known as Tartaglia (the stammerer), to a contest, presenting him with thirty cubics of this form, giving a moth to solve them. Tartaglia, who had solved equations of the form cubes and squares equal to numbers (ax 3 + bx 2 = d), in turn presented Fior with thirty of these. Fior lost the contest – he was not a good enough mathematician to solve Tartaglia’s type of problem, while Tartaglia, ten days before the contest, during a sleepless night, found a method for solving all Fior’s problems. Meanwhile, Gerolamo Cardano, wrote extensively about a range of topics, from medicine, probability (especially its applications to gambling), arithmetic and algebra. On hearing about the contest, he determined to get Tartaglia’s method from him, which he did one evening in 1539 after promising to give him an introduction to Spanish Governor of the city. Tartaglia hoped that the Governor would fund his researches, and in turn extracted from Cardano a solemn oath not to reveal the solution: I swear to you, by God’s holy Gospels, and as a true man of honour, not only never to publish your discoveries, if you teach me them, but I also promise you, and I pledge my faith as a true Christian, to note them down in code, so that after my death, no-one will be able to understand them. Tartaglia’s method for x 3 + cx = d was as follows: … to enable me to remember the method in any unforeseen circumstance, I have arranged it as a verse in rhyme … When the cube and the thing together Are equal to some discrete number [x 3 + cx = d] Find two other numbers differing in this one. [u – v = d] Then you will keep this as a habit That their product shall always be equal Exactly to the cube of a third of the things. [uv = (c/3) 3] The remainder then as a general rule Of their cube roots subtracted Will be equal to this principal thing. [x = u 1/3 + v 1/3] In the event, Cardano came to learn in 1542 that the original discovery of the method was due to del Ferro, rather than to Tartaglia, and felt free to break the oath, publishing in his Ars magna of 1545 the method for solving cubics – and also, incidentally, quartics (equations of degree 4), while had been solved in the meantime. The Ars magna became one of the most important algebra books of all time, but the hard-done Tartaglia was outraged and spent the remaining ten years of his life writing increasingly vitriolic letters and pamphlets to Cardano and his secretary. Thus, after a struggle lasting many centuries, cubic equations had at last been solved, together with quartic equations. Over the next few years, simplifications were made, and there was some useful discussion by Rafael Bombelli about ‘imaginary numbers’ (square roots of negative numbers), which had arisen from the solution of cubic equations but were not to be fully understood for many years. Such discussions, along with other developments in algebra, continued into the seventeenth century, starting a gradual swing from algebra towards geometry. We shall chronicle this in the next lecture, and discuss developments in gravitation and the calculus. © Professor Robin Wilson, Gresham College, 26 October 2005 October 8, 2011 HOME CONTACT US SITEMAP Posts GLORIA Center Global Research in International Affairs Center Home About Us MERIA » Projects » Books Donate Now IDC Herzliya Egypt Iran Israel Jordan Palestinians Radical Movements Syria Turkey U.S. Policy on the Middle East More Topics » You are here: Home / MERIA / Israel / THE MOUNTING PROBLEM OF TEMPLE DENIAL THE MOUNTING PROBLEM OF TEMPLE DENIAL By David Barnett August 29, 2011 Temple Denial is the belief that no Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem. This claim, despite being counter to Islamic tradition, became internalized within Palestinian academic, religious, and political circles following the 1967 Six-Day War. Since the 2000 Camp David Summit, during which Yasir Arafat asserted that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem, “Temple Denial” has spread with increased virulence in an attempt to deny both Jewish authority and access to the Temple Mount and Western Wall. On the ninth day of the 2000 Camp David Summit, Yasir Arafat, then Palestinian National Authority President, told President Bill Clinton that “Solomon’s Temple was not in Jerusalem, but Nablus.”[1] Arafat’s remark, known as “Temple Denial,” shook the foundation of the negotiations, as the leading Palestinian figure denied the existence of Judaism’s holiest site. Temple Denial is historical revisionism that runs counter to classical Islamic tradition and archaeological evidence. Since the 1967 Six-Day War, after Muslim control over the Temple Mount was lost to Israel, the belief that no Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem has developed and become internalized within Palestinian academic, religious, and political circles. Since Camp David, Temple Denial has transformed into a virulent delegitimization campaign that attempts to deny both Jewish authority and access to the Temple Mount and Western Wall (or Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem. JEWISH TIES TO JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT For Jews, the Temple Mount is the holiest place in the world. The Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount originates in the biblical narrative, as it is said to be the location of the binding of Isaac.[2] The Talmud, Judaism’s supreme canonical text, says that the foundation stone on the Temple Mount is the location from which the world was created.[3] In Samuel II 24:18-25, King David bought the bedrock for the Temple from Araunah the Jebusite. Subsequently, Solomon, David’s son, used the bedrock to build the First Temple.[4] Solomon’s Temple was eventually destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 BCE. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple, many Jews were sent into exile. However, under the Persian King Cyrus, the Jews were allowed to return and began to rebuild the Temple. The Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE and expanded by King Herod in 19 BCE. In 70 CE, the Roman Empire, led by Emperor Titus, laid siege to Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Jews have maintained an unbreakable connection to Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount since that time. Today, Jews follow a number of different customs in remembrance of their fallen Temple. When Jews pray, they pray toward Jerusalem. Within the daily liturgy, there are numerous calls for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. During the week, after meals, Jews recite a grace, which includes the recitation of Psalm 137 (“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem…”).[5] At the end of a wedding ceremony, the groom breaks a glass, which signifies the Jewish people’s continued mourning over the Temple’s destruction. In addition, many have the custom of leaving a wall in their home unfinished in remembrance of the destruction. All of these customs play a significant part in the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, which former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated “represents the purist expression of all that Jews prayed for, dreamed of, cried for, and died for in the two thousand years since the destruction of the Second Temple.”[6] In addition to the customs and ideology, the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel and Jerusalem is internationally recognized.[7] ISLAMIC LITERATURE AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT Classic Islamic literature also recognizes the existence of a Jewish Temple and its importance to Judaism. This makes Palestinian Temple Denial all the more puzzling. In Sura 17:1 of the Koran, the “Farthest Mosque” is called the al-masjid al-Aqsa. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn,[8] a well-respected Sunni exegesis of the Koran from the 15th and 16th centuries, notes that the “Farthest Mosque” is a reference to the Bayt al-Maqdis of Jerusalem.[9] In Hebrew, the Jewish Temple is often referred to as the Beyt Ha-Miqdash, nearly identical to the Arabic term. In the commentary of Abdullah Ibn Omar al-Baydawi, who authored several prominent theological works in the 13th century, the masjid is referred to as the Bayt al-Maqdis because during Muhammad’s time no mosque existed in Jerusalem.[10] Koranic historian and commentator, Abu Jafar Muhammad al-Tabari, who chronicled the seventh century Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, wrote that one day when Umar finished praying, he went to the place where “the Romans buried the Temple [bayt al-maqdis] at the time of the sons of Israel.”[11] In addition, eleventh century historian Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Maqdisi and fourteenth century Iranian religious scholar Hamdallah al-Mustawfi acknowledged that the al-Aqsa Mosque was built on top of Solomon’s Temple.[12] This is a small sample of the Islamic literature attesting to the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. Innumerable other writings from other faiths attest to this fact, as well. THE TEMPLE MOUNT DURING THE PALESTINE MANDATE The modern phenomenon of Temple Denial began during the Palestine Mandate. During this period, the Temple Mount was under the authority of the Supreme Muslim Council, led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husayni. The Supreme Muslim Council published yearly guide books to the Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount). Drawing from those available, the 1924, 1925, 1929, and 1935 guide books all stated that the Haram al-Sharif’s “identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”[13] The recognition of the Temple Mount’s importance to Jews in the guidebooks continued until 1950, two years after Israel’s establishment.[14] However, by 1954, the references to Solomon’s Temple disappeared. At some point between 1950 and 1954, the Muslim waqf (religious authority) that governed the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque inexplicably began to remove the references seen in earlier guide books. One of the earliest cases of Temple Denial occurred in the aftermath of the Arab disturbances of August 1929, which erupted over disputes between Jews and Muslims regarding access to the Western Wall. These riots led to the Hebron and Safed massacres and the death of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs. Following the riots and due to pressure from the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, an international investigative body examined Jewish and Muslim claims to the Western Wall. This investigation led to the Report of the Commission Appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the Approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to Determine the Rights and Claims of Moslems and Jews in Connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem.[15] The report acknowledged Jewish claims to the Temple Mount, noting, “It was Solomon who built the first Temple of Jerusalem, the grandeur and beauty of which have become widely renowned, thanks to the holy books and the historians. The Temple was situated on Mount Moriah on the platform, now known as the Harem-esh-Sherif area.”[16] Despite this acknowledgement, the Muslim claim formulated within the report stated, “It is here a question about property which has belonged to the Moslems for many centuries. The Buraq forms an integral part of the Haram-esh-Sherif, not a single stone of which dates back to the days of Solomon.”[17] This claim played a pivotal role in the commission’s conclusion, which recognized the significance of the Western Wall to Jews, but deemed the site a Muslim property.[18] THE RISE OF TEMPLE DENIAL During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel launched a preemptive strike against its neighboring enemies and conquered all of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank, including the Temple Mount. Following the Israeli victory, Israel claimed sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the government immediately passed the Protection of Holy Places Law.[19] While Israel now controlled the Temple Mount, it left administrative control in the hands of the waqf. Yet Israel’s claim of sovereignty did not sit well with many in the Muslim world, sparking fears of Jewish aspirations to usurp all of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Defending Jerusalem from the Jews quickly became the centerpiece of the nascent Palestinian political ideology.[20] The first step in denying Jewish control was denying the Jewish connection to the site. Palestinian historians soon launched a campaign to deny the importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to Jews. The new writings quickly spread throughout the Arab world. These texts typically argued that any Jewish presence in Jerusalem was less significant than the Muslim one.[21] To that end, the existence of Solomon’s Temple was denied. In cases where the existence of Solomon’s Temple was acknowledged, it was described as a minor prayer room. In addition, the Western Wall was deemed a Muslim holy site, while the Jewish connection was declared to be a falsehood.[22] These claims have only risen in popularity throughout pro-Palestinian circles in the Muslim world since 1967. In the more recent writings, the denial of Solomon’s Temple is expressed through the use of the word al-maz’um (alleged) with al-haykal (the Temple). The use of the word al-maz’um is a direct attempt to negate the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount.[23] The main argument made by those who deny the existence of the Jewish Temple is that no proof of the Temple’s existence has ever been found. Palestinian officials have adopted this position. Former Director of Foreign Publications for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Information Walid Awad stated, “The fact of the matter is that almost thirty years of excavations did not reveal anything Jewish… …Jerusalem is not a Jewish city, despite the biblical myth implanted in some minds.”[24] Jordanian academic Arafat Hijazi wrote, “42 archaeological teams excavated at al-Aqsa between 1891-1925 and hundreds have excavated since 1967, but not one archeologist has found a remnant of the Temple or any indication of the existence of Jews in Palestine.”[25] Abd al-Rahim Rihan Barakat, the director of antiquities in the Dahab region of the Sinai, further declared, “The legend about the Jewish Temple is the greatest historic crime of forgery.”[26] TEMPLE DENIAL WITHIN ACADEMIC, RELIGIOUS, AND POLITICAL CIRCLES Temple Denial is now a popular narrative in universities in the Muslim world. The denial of the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and the Land of Israel often take on traditional antisemitic motifs, even in academic settings. Jordanian academic Muhammad Dohal, for example, asserted that the Jewish connection to Palestine is a modern creation that is part of a Jewish plan to rule the region “through active control, media control, or economic control.”[27] Just as the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is viewed as an imperialist plan, the belief in the Temple is viewed as an imminent threat to the al-Aqsa compound. Former Chief Justice of the Religious Court of Palestine and Chairman of the Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places Shaykh Taysir al-Tamimi declared, “The worrying silence of the nation is what is encouraging the occupation [Israel] to carry out its plans against Al-Aqsa… The Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently subject to domination and desecration and transformation into a synagogue.”[28] In 2005, Shaykh Dr. Ahmad Nawfal, a lecturer at the Shari’a Faculty of the University of Jordan, argued, “The Jews dug 40 meters into the ground, and found nothing. There is no indication that a temple existed there. Brothers, they are making fun of you. Unfortunately, we are unwittingly legitimizing this nonsense of theirs. This is nonsense. This is heresy and blasphemy against God, history, human beings, and common sense.”[29] The idea of the Temple Mount having a Jewish connection is worrisome for many Palestinians, thus they argue that until hard evidence is shown, it is a forgery; and when pro-Palestinian writers and scholars admit that the Temple did exist, it is usually argued that it was not near the al-Aqsa compound.[30] Former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Shaykh Ikrima Sabri, arguably the leading Temple denier, stated on many occasions that the Jewish connection to the Temple was a myth. In a 1998 interview with the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon, Shaykh Sabri voiced his opinion: Moslems have no knowledge or awareness that the Temple Mount has any sanctity for Jews. Why should we allow the Jews to share in places which are holy to us and to Islam… The Moslems ruled the land, since the Caliph Omar, and only now have the Jews remembered to demand a right to the Temple Mount. The Moslems will never permit anyone to enter the Temple Mount. If the Jews really want peace, they must absolutely forget about having any rights over the Temple Mount or al-Aksa Mosque. The Western Wall also belongs to Moslems, and was given to the Jews as a place of prayer only because the British asked and the Moslems agreed out of the goodness of their hearts. The Western Wall is just a fence belonging to a Moslem Holy Site.[31] Similarly, the aforementioned al-Tamimi stated, “I know of Muslim and Christian holy sites in [Jerusalem]. I don’t know of any Jewish holy sites in it… Israel has been excavating since 1967 in search of remains of their Temple or their fictitious Jewish history.”[32] The current Mufti of Jerusalem, Shaykh Muhammad Hussein asserted that Jews “claim that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built over the ruins of the alleged Temple. The construction of these buildings [by Israel], and the synagogues with the large, wide domes [in Jerusalem]–all of this is meant to erase the remains of the Islamic culture and to replace them with [their] alleged culture, through the power of occupation.”[33] For some, like the Al-Aqsa Institute for Religious Affairs and Heritage, Jewish activity in Jerusalem is viewed as part of a satanic plot: There is increasing Israeli occupationist madness [aiming] to harm the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to realize a dark and fabled dream–the establishment of the alleged Temple in place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque… All the Israeli actions in Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque are part of a satanic plot, and therefore the position is worrying and most dangerous. Action must be taken to halt this criminal occupationist activity against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem.[34] While the denial from religious leaders is troublesome, since many Muslims take their cue from their clerics, the most damaging narrative may come from Palestinian politicians, among whom this phenomenon has risen sharply since the 2000 Camp David Summit. At Camp David, while meeting with President Clinton, Arafat declared that “Solomon’s Temple was not in Jerusalem, but Nablus.”[35] In addition, Saib Arikat, a leading Palestinian negotiator said, “This whole issue of the Temple… is a Jewish invention lacking any basis.”[36] These claims were retorted by President Clinton, who said that “not only the Jews but I, too, believe that under the surface there are remains of Solomon’s Temple.”[37] In late July 2000, Nabil Sha’ath, a Palestinian minister, said, “Israel demands control of the Temple Mount based on its claim that its fictitious temple stood there.”[38] Two years after Camp David, Arafat changed his claim as he asserted that there is “not a single stone proving that the Temple of Solomon was there, because historically the Temple was not in Palestine [at all].”[39] Arafat furthered his claims in 2003 during a presentation to a delegation of Arab leaders in which he argued that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem, but rather it existed in Yemen and that he had personally visited the site.[40] Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, also engaged in Temple Denial when he said that Jews “claim that 2000 years ago they had a holy place there. I challenge the assertion [that there has ever been a Jewish temple].”[41] More recently, Yasir Abd Rabbo, Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee, asserted, “[Israel] entered the [Muslim] holy sites [in Jerusalem], in order to fulfill a legend and basing themselves on it… in order to build what is called the false Temple.”[42] Temple Denial has spread throughout many circles because the al-Aqsa compound has become the centerpiece of Palestinian political thought.[43] The fact that the al-Aqsa compound is viewed as a national symbol has moved the denial beyond just the Temple Mount. DENYING JEWISH TIES TO THE WESTERN WALL The phenomenon of Temple Denial today includes the Western Wall. The denial of a Jewish connection to the Western Wall is an attempt to restrict the Jewish right to pray at the holy site. Indeed, the attempt to deny Jewish rights to pray at the Western Wall was seen in the aforementioned 1930 League of Nations report. The report, which claimed that the Western Wall was Muslim property, provided the foundation from which current Palestinian scholars, religious, and political leaders reject the Jewish connection to the site. In general the Palestinian denial of the importance of the Western Wall to Jews is based on three principles. First, there is the claim that Muhammad tethered his steed, al-Buraq, to the Western Wall on his night journey before having the Koran related to him. This implies that Islam’s claim on the site supersedes that of the Jews. Second, and as a possible means to strengthen their own claims, they posit that Jews invented the Western Wall as a holy site. Third, Jews have no historical claim to the site. These ideas are regularly presented by Palestinians and their supporters in the Muslim world.[44] In 2002, Arafat Hijazi wrote that Muslims “must redeem from its state of desecration occupied al-Buraq, whose sanctity has been violated by the Jews… They can wail anywhere, while the Muslims have no other place where the Prophet tethered al-Buraq.”[45] These ideas were supported by Shaykh Ikrima Sabri who said: There is not [even] the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish History. Our right, on the other hand, is very clear. This place belongs to us for 1500 years. Even when it was conquered by the Crusaders, it remained Al-Aqsa, and we got it back soon afterwards. The Jews do not even know exactly where their temple stood. Therefore, we do not accept that they have any rights, underneath the surface or above it… There is not a single stone in the Wailing-Wall relating to Jewish History. The Jews cannot legitimately claim this wall, neither religiously nor historically.[46] Shaykh Sabri, along with Dr. Nasr Farid Wasil, the former Mufti of Egypt, also issued fatwas (religious edicts) that prohibit Muslims from referring to al-Buraq as the Wailing Wall.[47] In September 2010, a PA TV documentary showed Jews praying at the Western Wall, during which the narrator said, “They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth [Jews praying at the Western Wall].”[48] In a study published by the PA Ministry of Information in November 2010, al-Mutawakil Taha, the author of the report, wrote, “The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel… this wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction.”[49] The study, which is the official position of the PA,[50] concluded that “no Muslim or Arab or Palestinian had the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq Wall or other religious sites.”[51] Following strong condemnations by Israel and the United States, the study was removed from the official website of the PA’s Ministry of Information.[52] However, it soon reappeared on the official website of the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, Wafa.[53] CONCLUSION Despite running counter to Islamic tradition, Temple Denial has since 1967 remained an integral part of the Palestinian nationalist ideology, which is predicated on the rejection of Zionism and Jewish ties to the Land of Israel.[54] The continued spread of Temple Denial poses a serious problem to a peace process based on coexistence and mutual recognition. As the debate intensifies over the final status issues, including the Temple Mount, Temple Denial must now be addressed. *David Barnett is currently studying at Johns Hopkins University. NOTES [1] Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), p. 694. [2] Genesis 22:1-19. [3] Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 54b. [4] Kings I, 6:1-38. [5] Psalm 137 is most known for the verses: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.” In an interview on Palestinian Authority TV on June 2, 2011, Dr. Hayel Sanduqa, a Palestinian researcher, claimed that these verses were first said by a Christian Crusader and were subsequently “borrowed by the Zionist movement, which falsified it in the name of Zionism.” Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “Palestinian distortion: “If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem” was Crusader Expression Usurped by Zionists,” Palestinian Media Watch, June 9, 2011, http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5133. [6] Ehud Olmert, “I Am the Most Privileged Jew in the Universe,” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1997), p. 65. [7] Yitzhak Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), p. 39. [8] The Tafsir al-Jalalayn is a commentary to the Koran that was started by Jalal ad-Din al-Mahalli in the late 15th century and completed by Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti in the early 16th century. [9] “Tafsir al-Jalalayn,” Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2010, http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=17&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2; Dore Gold, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2007), p. 17. [10] Gold, The Fight for Jerusalem, p. 17. [11] Yohanan Friedmann, The History of al-Tabari: Volume XII, The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and the Conquest of Syria and Palestine (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992), p. 195. [12] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 44. [13] Gold, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City, p. 18; A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem: The Supreme Muslim Council, 1925), p. 4; A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem: The Supreme Muslim Council, 1929), p. 4. [14] A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem: The Supreme Muslim Council, 1950), p. 3. [15] League of Nations, Report of the Commission Appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the Approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to Determine the Rights and Claims of Moslems and Jews in Connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem,” 1930, http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/181c4bf00c44e5fd85256cef0073c426/59a92104ed00dc468525625b00527fea. [16] Ibid. [17] Ibid. [18] Ibid. While the commission recognized the Muslim claim that Muhammad tethered his steed to the Western Wall, it concluded that “the said place is not situated within the part of the Wall which skirts along the Pavement of the Wailing Place of the Jews, but in its extension to the south…. Under these circumstances the Commission does not consider that the Pavement in front of the Wall can be regarded as a sacred place from a Moslem point of view.” [19] Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Protection of Holy Places Law, 1967,” http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Protection%20of%20Holy%20Places%20Law. [20] Daniel Pipes, “The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem,” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4 (2001). [21] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 42. [22] Ibid. [23] Ibid, p. 47. [24] Aaron Lerner, “PA: No Evidence of Jewish Temple Period in Jerusalem,” Independent Media Review Analysis, December 3, 1996, http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=1139. [25] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, pp. 49-50. [26] Nadav Shragai, “In the Beginning Was al-Aqsa,” Haaretz, November 27, 2005, http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/in-the-beginning-was-al-aqsa-1.175216. [27] “PA TV History Program: Jews Throughout History Have Sought Rule over All Arab Land, Not Just Palestine,” Palestinian Media Watch, October 10, 2010, http://www.palwatch.org/site/modules/print/preview.aspx?fi=780&doc_id=4373. [28] “PA Chief Justice of Religious Court: Al-Aqsa Desecrated, Transformed into Synagogue,” Palestinian Media Watch, October 4, 2009, http://www.palwatch.org/site/modules/print/preview.aspx?fi=771&doc_id=1371. [29] “Jordanian Professor/Terrorist on Saudi Al-Majd TV Says Kings David & Solomon Were Muslims Who Today Would Have Fought Israel, Supports Leading Holocaust Denier,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch, No. 1030, November 22, 2005, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/251/1533.htm. [30] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 53. [31] Makor Rishon, May 22, 1998. [32] “Jews Have No Connection to Jerusalem,” Palestinian Media Watch, June 9, 2009, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=636&fld_id=636&doc_id=1105. [33] “Mufti of Jerusalem Denies Existence of Jewish Temple, Referred to As Alleged Temple,” Palestinian Media Watch, November 26, 2010, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=489&doc_id=4378. [34] Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “PA Daily: Israeli Actions in Jerusalem… a Satanic Plot,” Palestinian Media Watch, January 10, 2011, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4222. [35] Ross, The Missing Peace, p. 694. [36] Shlomo Ben-Ami, A Front Without a Rearguard: A Voyage to the Boundaries of the Peace Process (Tel Aviv: Yedioth Ahronot Books, 2004), p. 219. [37] Benny Morris, “Camp David and After: An Interview with Ehud Barak,” New York Review of Books, June 13, 2002, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2002/jun/13/camp-david-and-after-an-exchange-1-an-interview-wi/?pagination=false. [38] Yigal Carmon and Aluma Solnik, “Camp David and the Prospects for a Final Settlement, Part I: Israeli, Palestinian, and American Positions,” August 4, 2000, MEMRI, Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No. 35, http://www.memri.org/report/en/print356.htm. [39] “Interview with Yasir Arafat,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 428, October 11, 2002, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/835/743.htm. [40] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 37. According to Yitzhak Reiter, Arafat’s beliefs regarding the Jewish Temple are based on the writings of Kamal Salibi, a professor at the American University of Beirut. In The Bible Came from Arabia, Salibi, a Lebanese Christian, argues that biblical Jerusalem was in the Arabian Nimas highlands in the region of Asir and that the Israelites were from West Arabia. Kamal Salibi, The Bible Came from Arabia (London: Jonathan Cape, 1985), pp. 7-26, 97-132. [41] “Abu Mazen on the Peace Process,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 122, August 29, 2000, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/364.htm. [42] “PA Official Abd Rabbo: Temple Is ‘False’,” Palestinian Media Watch, March 16, 2010, http://www.palwatch.org/site/modules/print/preview.aspx?fi=489&doc_id=3056. [43] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 45. [44] Ibid, p. 42. [45] Ibid, p. 56. [46] “The PA Mufti: Jews from Germany Should Return There,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 182, January 26, 2001, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/417.htm. [47] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 56. [48] Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “PA TV: Jews Praying at Western Wall Are ‘Sin and filth,’” Palestinian Media Watch, September 14, 2010, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=3112. [49] Khaled Abu Toameh, “Jews Have No Right to Western Wall, PA ‘Study’ Says,” The Jerusalem Post, November 22, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=196329. [50] “Palestinian Official: Western Wall is Not Jewish,” Haaretz, November 24, 2010, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-official-western-wall-is-not-jewish-1.326595. [51] Abu Toameh, “Jews Have No Right to Western Wall, PA ‘Study’ Says.” [52] “Palestinians Drop Claim That Western Wall Is Not Jewish,” Haaretz, December 1, 2001, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-drop-claim-that-western-wall-is-not-jewish-1.328220. [53] “Study Confirms the Right of Muslims to the Wailing Wall,” Palestine News and Information Agency–Wafa, November 22, 2010, http://www.wafa.ps/arabic/index.php?action=detail&id=91079. [54] “The Palestinian National Charter: Resolutions of the Palestine National Council July 1-17, 1968,” The Avalon Project, 2008, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp. See Article 20: “The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.” Iran and its region A supreme leader at bay Jan 7th 2010 From The Economist print edition Ayatollah Ali Khamenei faces a growing barrage of opposition. Now prominent intellectuals are adding their voices to the fray Reuters BACK in the late 1970s, as Iran approached revolution and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi oscillated between conciliation and brutal repression, the more daring of his subjects peppered him with criticism and advice. The open letters he received were couched in expressions of allegiance, yet diminished his aura, not least because they signalled to revolutionary forces the wavering sympathies of their authors. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s current absolute ruler, now has an in-tray full of such counsel. And he has scorned it all. Ever since last June’s disputed election, Mr Khamenei has striven to give an impression of firmness. He began by upholding the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and dismissing calls by Mir Hosein Mousavi, the winner of the election to most independent minds, for the poll to be re-held. Later, as the opposition “green” movement grew in strength, posing a challenge to the Islamic Republic in general and to Mr Khamenei’s sinecure, the “guardianship of the jurist” (a cleric at the apex of government) in particular, he let it be known through his ciphers that his critics’ only hope of leniency was to repent and throw themselves on his mercy. The supreme leader’s inflexibility now looks like an error. He has infuriated those moderate conservatives who recognise that the events of the second half of last year have changed Iran irrevocably, and who advocate concessions in the name of national unity. Several times since June, politicians and clerics from Mr Khamenei’s conservative side of the political divide have proposed helpful measures such as freeing political prisoners, setting up an impartial election commission and pressing the state broadcasting monopoly to reduce its spectacular bias in favour of the government. Apart from cooling tempers, these measures might have exposed divisions among Mr Mousavi’s supporters. Mr Khamenei has dismissed them all. The most significant contribution to the debate has now come in the form of a manifesto from abroad—from five exiles. The quintet, Abdolkarim Soroush, Mohsen Kadivar, Ataollah Mohajerani, Akbar Ganji and Abdolali Bazargan, are far from being out of touch. With the exception of Mr Bazargan, whose importance is partly symbolic—his father headed revolutionary Iran’s first government and is now fondly remembered as an opponent of extremism—the signatories are the pick of Iran’s public intellectuals. They provided intellectual ballast for the reform movement that brought Muhammad Khatami to the presidency in 1997, from which today’s green movement may be said to have sprung. They left Iran relatively recently, and have realistic views of what is going on in the homeland. Their manifesto may turn out to be of historic importance. In it the five reiterated some old demands, notably for Mr Ahmadinejad’s resignation and fresh elections with impartial observers; the lifting of restrictions on political, academic and media activity; and the return to barracks of the Revolutionary Guard, with its vast economic and political interests. The manifesto’s most significant paragraphs concerned the future role of what it referred to as the “despotic guardian”, Mr Khamenei himself. All the signatories have suffered at the hands of the supreme leader: he personally ended the ministerial career of Mr Mojaherani, for instance, and he approved the hounding of Mr Soroush, a brilliant lay theologian, into exile. If the exiles’ manifesto were implemented, Iran would retain a supreme leader, but he would be elected for a fixed term and lose his ability to block parliamentary legislation through his proxy, the Guardian Council, and to appoint the country’s chief justice. In short, he would become a turbaned version of the constitutional monarch for whom Iranian democracy-seekers have pined ever since the country won its first parliament in 1906. Mr Kadivar, a cleric who shot to notoriety two decades ago when he questioned the legality of the guardianship of the jurist, has indicated that the manifesto is designed to be implemented under Iran’s current constitution. This may be read as a rebuff to those longstanding exile groups, monarchist and otherwise, who fondly hope for a role in dismantling—and replacing—the Islamic Republic. On the contrary, Mr Kadivar seems to be saying, the job of building a new Iran will fall to the same reformists who have spent the past 15 years struggling for peaceful change. The exiles’ manifesto may seem premature, given the vast apparatus of repression at the disposal of Messrs Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, and the indifference or hostility of millions of conservative Iranians to the green movement’s goals and methods. To be fair, the five exiles recognise the need to broaden the movement’s appeal away from its main base, the urban middle class. And they warn of the cumulative dangers posed by a disgruntled populace and a minority of powerful extremists who are ready to “shed the blood of thousands of Iranians” in order to remain in power. A movement broadens Last month’s funeral for Ayatollah Hosein Ali Montazeri, in religious terms Mr Khamenei’s most distinguished clerical opponent, may have marked a broadening of the movement along the lines suggested by the five exiles. On December 21st, the day of the funeral, thousands of middle-class Tehranis converged on the holy city of Qom, a bastion of clerical conservatism. In the streets outside Qom’s great shrine they joined forces with thousands of traditional, provincial Iranians, devout followers of Montazeri’s teachings and rulings, and shouted abuse at some of the Islamic Republic’s leading figures. “It was a big day for the city,” commented one eyewitness. “People couldn’t believe they were hearing such slogans being shouted—in Qom, of all places.” With characteristic bad grace, Mr Khamenei banned mourning ceremonies for Montazeri in some provincial towns, several of which experienced violent demonstrations as a result. No mention was made in the press of the ayatollah’s political profile—save in the supreme leader’s own, barbed message of condolence. If the Qom demonstrations gave heart to the green movement, the turbulent protests that were held on December 27th, the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, were a reminder of the pitfalls of ill-discipline. The demonstrators suffered heavy losses—at least eight dead and many more injured and arrested—but skilful manipulation by the state-dominated media meant that brutality by the baseej, the state militia under Mr Khamenei’s ultimate command, was overshadowed by the demonstrators’ own violent responses to the assaults, and by the virulence of their slogans against Mr Khamenei. A movement that once prided itself on non-violence, and whose most inspiring marches were conducted in silence, seemed to be degenerating. In the days that followed, the authorities and their media allies depicted the opposition as thuggish nihilists who had desecrated Shia Islam’s most solemn occasion. State television endlessly replayed footage of protesters celebrating in front of a burning building, interspersed with triumphalist comment from such exiled counter-revolutionaries as the People’s Mujahideen Organisation—reviled by many Iranians for fighting on the Iraqis’ side during the war of 1980-83—and the genial, if ineffective, elder son of the former Shah. On December 30th participants in a big government-organised rally in central Tehran demanded that Mr Mousavi and his supporters should be executed for “waging war on God”. Reuters Hands up for Montazeri For a while, it seemed inevitable that either Mr Mousavi or a lesser opposition figurehead, Mehdi Karroubi, would be arrested; it was even possible, as parliamentarians, rabble-rousing clerics and conservative newspaper headlines piously demanded, that they would be executed. The only conceivable reason for Mr Khamenei’s failure to countenance their arrest was his fear of turning adversaries into martyrs. In the first week of January came an admonition. Ezzatollah Sahabi, a veteran opposition figure, issued an open letter in which he warned the green movement not to slide towards “radicalism and violence”. To excitable exiles who detect shades of 1978-79 in today’s convulsions, he advised against unrealistic hopes: “A revolution in today’s Iran”, he wrote, “is neither possible nor desirable.” If moderate clerics and conservatives were forced to choose between a movement of radicals and the status quo, he predicted, they would choose stability. Mr Sahibi’s letter may have sobered up the green movement. Just how much will become clear on February 11th, when opposition supporters intend to exploit the opportunity provided by official celebrations of the revolution’s anniversary, and take to the streets yet again. Mr Mousavi, too, has cooled tempers by apparently going back on his earlier insistence that Mr Ahmadinejad’s government was illegal, and by saying that not all the opposition’s demands need to be met at once. From an opposition perspective, Mr Khamenei’s aversion to imaginative thinking among his supporters has had the advantage of encouraging his adversaries to fill the gap, which they are now doing by articulating what they want, not simply what they oppose. And for the moment, the most authoritative of those opposition voices—including the five exiles—favour a solution within the framework of the Islamic Republic. The slipping mantle People who know the supreme leader are unsurprised by his obduracy. He spent the eight-year presidency of Muhammad Khatami, Iran’s only reformist president to date, obstructing far more innocuous measures than are now being proposed. To make concessions under pressure, the ayatollah apparently believes, is a sign less of wisdom than of weakness. So he has contented himself with vague calls for national unity, even as the baseej bash opposition heads and the nation’s prison officers gain notoriety as rapists and torturers. Having survived more than two decades at the top of Iran’s power structure, Mr Khamenei is now looking acutely uncomfortable. By refusing to countenance a fresh election in the aftermath of the June poll, he turned much of the ire that was being directed against his president against himself. As recently as a few months ago, few Tehranis would have dared whisper “Death to Khamenei”. Now that slogan has become a commonplace. None of this means that the ayatollah is about to fall. Strikes, which ended the shah’s regime, are so far confined to students boycotting exams. No one in the opposition expects quick results. In their manifesto, the five exiles foresee a lengthy period of dissent. But many Iranians remain convinced less by democracy than by traditional notions of a just ruler, empowered by divine grace and legitimised as much by his ability to keep the country together as by his innate justice. This summer, that mantle started to slip from Mr Khamanei’s shoulders. It will take uncommon skill for him to stop it falling. Back to top ^^ MTA Capital Program 2010-2014 Earth Day 2010 Executive Summary Full Proposed MTA Capital Program 2010-2014 Press Release The MTA's capital program has earned a critical place in the story of New York's revitalization and growth over the past 30 years. While the more than $64 billion spent in that time helped turn around our regional economy, the reality is that maintaining and improving our 100-year-old system is an ongoing need and we cannot afford to disinvest. But we have an additional reality - the State's economic crisis has required the MTA to look at its entire operation through a new lens. The revised 2010-2014 Capital Program reflects the current economic situation and introduces a new way of doing business. Every project included in the program has been thoroughly reviewed to ensure that it is critical and will be continually reviewed to monitor progress and identify further cost savings. This review has helped cut nearly $2 billion from the cost of the program. The result is a $26.3 billion five-year program that provides enormous benefit to our customers and thousands of jobs to New York State at a critical time. Protecting and Improving Service for Customers While much of the capital program work is done behind the scenes, every investment helps the MTA provide a good service to our customers 365 days a year. Every project in the capital program will benefit customers in one of three ways: * Maintain the high levels of service reliability and safety provided today: That means repairing trains, buses and subway cars, and replacing them when their useful life ends. It means maintaining the track, signals, yards, depots and bridges that keep our customers safe and on time. And it means addressing components in our stations in need of repair. * Improve service on the existing system: The Capital Program also includes projects that maximize the capacity of the existing system and advance customer improvements. o New signal technology (Communications Based Train Control) on the #7 subway line will let us run a train nearly every two minutes, carrying about 2500 more customers each rush hour on this crowded line. o The MTA's bus divisions will purchase 674 articulated buses, 118 of which will be used to increase capacity along four Select Bus Service (SBS) corridors developed in partnership with the City of New York. o Several projects develop and test new technology to improve the customer experience, from train arrival signs to all-electronic tolling and camera enforcement of bus lanes. One of the key initiatives in the capital program is the introduction of a new smart card fare collection system that will make travel easier across the region. * Complete critical expansion projects to ease crowding and support growth: The final group of projects in the capital program expands the MTA's transportation network for the first time in more than a generation. This program fulfills our commitment to completing East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway, long overdue projects to reduce commute times and ease the crushing overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue subway. The program also includes $250 million to continue improving the security of our transportation network in a post-9/11 world, working directly with the MTA PD, NYPD and other local and federal law enforcement agencies. Economic Benefits for New York The MTA's 2010-2014 Capital Program will create vital economic activity: * More than 20,000 new jobs annually over nine years * Nearly $37 billion in economic activity Companies across the state play a role building rolling stock, supplying parts or rebuilding infrastructure and working on new facilities. These projects provide jobs in communities from Buffalo to Albany to Plattsburgh and many places in between. Follow Our Progress Soon our web site will for the first time feature a user-friendly, interactive system to let the public track our progress. Projects will be color coded - green for those that meet their goals and red for targets that are not being met. This information will be available for each project in the 2010-2014 Capital Plan and select projects still underway in the 2005-2009 Program. The MTA board had approved the revised 2010-2014 Capital Program for submission and was deemed approved by the CPRB on June 2nd in Albany. 'We Are Totally Unprepared' Nine years after 9/11, a chilling complacency about WMD attacks. * By PEGGY NOONAN The most important overlooked story of the past few weeks was overlooked because it was not surprising. Also because no one really wants to notice it. The weight of 9/11 and all its implications is so much on our minds that it's never on our mind. I speak of the report from the inspector general of the Justice Department, issued in late May, saying the department is not prepared to ensure public safety in the days or weeks after a terrorist attack in which nuclear, biological or chemical weapons are used. The Department of Homeland Security is designated as first federal responder, in a way, in the event of a WMD attack, but every agency in government has a formal, assigned role, and the crucial job of Justice is to manage and coordinate law enforcement and step in if state and local authorities are overwhelmed. View Full Image noonan612 Associated Press noonan612 noonan612 So how would Justice do, almost nine years after the attacks of 9/11? Poorly. "The Department is not prepared to fulfill its role . . . to ensure public safety and security in the event of a WMD incident," says the 61-page report. Justice has yet to assign an entity or individual with clear responsibility for oversight or management of WMD response; it has not catalogued its resources in terms of either personnel or equipment; it does not have written plans or checklists in case of a WMD attack. A deputy assistant attorney general for policy and planning is quoted as saying "it is not clear" who in the department is responsible for handling WMD response. Workers interviewed said the department's operational response program "lacks leadership and oversight." An unidentified Justice Department official was quoted: "We are totally unprepared." He added. "Right now, being totally effective would never happen. Everybody would be winging it." The inspector general's staff interviewed 36 senior officials involved in the department's emergency response planning and summarized the finding: "It was clear that no person or entity is managing the overall Department's response activities." You could almost see them scratching their heads and saying, "No one's in charge here." More Peggy Noonan Read Peggy Noonan's previous columns click here to order her new book, Patriotic Grace The report reminded me of the CBS News reporter who, working the overnight and monitoring the wires, saw the first report in 1957 that the Soviet Union had launched the first satellite, Sputnik. He called the rocket launch site at Cape Canaveral for a reaction. "We're all asleep here!" a rocket scientist replied, according to lore. They certainly were. A year later NASA was born. There is one bright spot in the inspector general's report: the FBI, which was highlighted for its organizational seriousness about WMD readiness, including holding regular exercises and training sessions, and having an actual response plan with clear lines of responsibility. All credit to the bureau. The report was not the first of its kind. Six months ago, the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism gave both the Obama administration and Congress failing grades on preparedness for biological attack. It said, "the US is failing to address several urgent threats, especially bioterrorism." The administration soon announced it would speed up delivery of drugs that would be needed in the event of an attack. More * WTC Plaintiffs May Get More Money After the inspector general's report, Paul McHale, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania who also served as an assistant secretary of defense under George W. Bush, told the Los Angeles Times: "There is a sense of complacency that has settled in nearly a decade after Sept. 11." The paper also quoted Randall Larsen, the former executive director of the commission that gave the government low marks in January: "They just don't see the WMD scenario as most likely," he said. They don't? They must be idiots. They must not be reading all the government reports of the past eight years, declaring terrorist attacks on U.S. soil not only likely but virtually certain. There are many reasons for this, and just one has to do with something Ronald Reagan mused about in his office 25 years ago. "Man has never had a weapon he didn't use," he said, to a handful of aides. If you develop the atom bomb, it will be used, as it was. If man, in his darkness, can develop and deploy nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, they will be used, too. No one wants to think about it. I don't want to think about it. But you have to make plans. You have to imagine, you have to think about the worst case, and then you have to plan for it—literally. We've had enough time, nine years since our unforgettable reminder that history is, among other things, and some of them quite wonderful, a charnel house. Our eye is off the ball. The public, in spite of what it knows in the day to day, assumes the government is on the case. And certainly the government is on the case with regard to prevention: Not being hit again since 2001 means something, and our antiterrorism professionals, intelligence and law-enforcement agents, do impressive work. In New York the past week they picked up two apparent would-be terrorists who won't be playing jihad anytime soon. But public awareness of prevention success gives the impression the government is similarly capable in terms of readiness and response. You can see a certain air of complacency even on government websites. On the front page of the House Committee on Homeland Security site there's a picture of Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, then, below, an area devoted to something called "Business Opportunities Model" and an area for "DHS Business Opportunities." On the Homeland Security Department's website, the priorities seem equally clear: "Find Career Opportunities," "Use the Job Finder." There's little sense of urgency; it's government as employment agency, not crisis leader. A few days before the report on the Justice Department, Henry Kissinger spoke before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in favor of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. His testimony was moving—the old vet shares his anxieties for the future—and pertinent. Asked to think aloud on the foreign-policy landscape, the former national security adviser and secretary of state's thoughts turned toward the facts of the age we live in. Suicide bombers, or those who might independently use WMDs, are unlike nations: "They do not calculate in any classic way." The moment we are living in is both dramatic and uncertain. "What happens if we woke up one morning and found that 500,000 people had been killed somewhere?" On 9/11 we were rocked but held together. In a second and more devastating attack, public safety and public unity would be infinitely more stressed. The event, having had a precursor, would be infinitely more painful. You'd think this would focus the government's mind. We may be witnessing again a failure of imagination, the famous phrase used after 9/11 to capture why the U.S. government was caught so flatfooted and was so stunned that such a terrible thing could occur. They neglected to think of the worst thing that could happen, and so of course they did not plan for it. If agencies within the government now are having a second failure of imagination, it is not forgivable. We're not being asked to imagine a place we've never been, after all, we're only being asked to imagine where we've been, and how it could be worse, and plan for it. #$Id: timezone.txt,v 1.0 2007/01/24 14:58:40 ewhite Exp $ Timezone data and DST Daylight Saving Time changes for the U.S. in 2007 and 2008. All of the following notes use the Central time zone as the example. Documentation for making changes to the timezone files are difficult to find and scattered. Here is a quick and dirty cheat-sheet to update the tzdata files. 1. Verify that your tzdata files are incorrect. There are two ways to do this. zdump -v CST6CDT | grep 2007 Incorrect for 2007 will look like: CST6CDT Sun Apr 1 07:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Apr 1 01:59:59 2007 CST isdst=0 gmtoff=-21600 CST6CDT Sun Apr 1 08:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Apr 1 03:00:00 2007 CDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-18000 CST6CDT Sun Oct 28 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Oct 28 01:59:59 2007 CDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-18000 CST6CDT Sun Oct 28 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Oct 28 01:00:00 2007 CST isdst=0 gmtoff=-21600 The second method (this does not work on Tru64): date --date="2007-03-11 08:00:10 UTC" Incorrect for 2007: Sun Mar 11 02:00:10 CST 2007 2. From ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub, download these two files: tzcode2007a.tar.gz tzdata2007a.tar.gz 3. In a scratch directory untar both of these files. 4. Run the following: zic -d ./tmp ./northamerica The result is a new directory with new tzdata binary files. 5. Verify the new tzdata files. This command will modify the TZ environment variable to point to your scratch directory and not the default zoneinfo directory. It also uses the UTC clock plus the 6 hour offset for CST. Keep in mind that the UTC clock does not change. TZ=`pwd`/CST6DST date --date="2007-03-10 08:00:10 UTC" The results should be Sat Mar 10 02:00:10. This is correct for that day. Now test for CDT. TZ=`pwd`/CST6DST date --date="2007-03-11 08:00:10 UTC" The results should be Sun Mar 11 03:00:10. With this result, a new and improved tzdata file is available for use. 6. Now comes the hard part. You must find where your system stores its default localtime file and where it keeps the zoneinfo files. Normally, /etc/localtime is used as the default system tzdata file. However, this file may be a copy or a link. Slackware 10.2 and 11.0: has both a copy and a link. The link is to /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central. This file, /etc/localtime and /usr/share/zoneinfo/CST6CDT are the same. Suse 9.2: /etc/localtime, /etc/share/zoneinfo/CST6CDT and /etc/share/zoneinfo/US/Central are copies of the same. Tru64: files are in /etc/zoneinfo and localtime is a link to /etc/zoneinfo/CST6DST. Tru64 does not have an /etc/localtime file. 7. Save and replace the tzdata file for your system. For example: mv /etc/localtime /etc/localtime.old mv /usr/share/zoneinfo/CST6CDT /usr/share/zoneinfo/CST6CDT.old mv /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central.old From the tmp in your scratch directory: cp CST6CDT /etc/localtime cp CST6CDT /usr/share/zoneinfo/CST6CDT cp CST6CDT /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central As my machine does not move between timezones, I chose not to move all the tzdata files. One could rename the zoneinfo directory and replace it with the contents of the scratch tmp directory. 8. Final verification. zdump -v CST6CDT | grep 2007 CST6CDT Sun Mar 11 07:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 CST isdst=0 gmtoff=-21600 CST6CDT Sun Mar 11 08:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2007 CDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-18000 CST6CDT Sun Nov 4 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:59:59 2007 CDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-18000 CST6CDT Sun Nov 4 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:00:00 2007 CST isdst=0 gmtoff=-21600 date --date="2007-03-11 08:00:10 UTC" Sun Mar 11 03:00:10 CDT 2007 #$Source: /home/ewhite/notes/lnxsysnotes/RCS/timezone.txt,v $ #$Log: timezone.txt,v $ #Revision 1.0 2007/01/24 14:58:40 ewhite #Initial revision # Congestion Pricing for NYC Is a Fraud - 80 Other Ways to Stop Traffic Congestion [Carl E Person] First Published 07/09/07 11:55 a.m. - last revision: 11/12/07 12:10 pm Congestion Pricing Is a Tax on the Wrong People -- AND A FRAUD. I'm a resident in the "congested area" as well as a motorist, and have given much thought to the so-called congestion problem and the currently-offered cure: "congestion pricing". I have developed an extensive counter argument below, in 3 parts. The first part gives some basic facts about NYC; the second part shows the main causes of congestion and NYC's failure to deal with the obvious cures for congestion; and the third part outlines some possible unintended consequences which may result from congestion pricing. However, before going into these matters, I want to discuss some important matters: (i) the unconstitutionality of congestion pricing; (ii) how the voters of NYC can undo any congestion pricing plan imposed by NYC officials; (iii) the creation of 2 new types of jobs in NYC: Intersection Controllers and Intersection Ticketers; (iv) appointment of an investigative commission to look into the causes and cures for traffic congestion in NYC; (v) a variant on "following the money" - by that I mean follow specific vehicles during their movement in NYC to actually estimate the amount of congestion they cause by the way in which they move, park, stand, unload, load, wait, etc.; and (vi) Why should the federal government offer NYC $350 million to impose a multi-billion "congestion tax" on motorists? What is the federal government's interest? 1. A Constitutional Argument Against Congestion Pricing When I first heard about the possibility of congestion pricing for NYC, my first thought was that similar schemes for taxing outsiders have been held unconstitutional. I'm thinking of the New Jersey beach access cases, such as Borough of Neptune, 61 N.J. at 303, citing Brindley v. Lavallette, 33 N.J. Super. 344, 348-349 (Law Div. 1954), which held that it was illegal for towns, boroughs or villages in New Jersey to charge higher beach access fees to non-residents than were being charged to residents. The theory was that beach access is a public trust and that the public at large (not just local residents) have the right to use the beaches on equal terms, so that discriminatory fees to discourage non-residents were illegal. You can view midtown and lower Manhattan as an economic and entertainment "beach" or "oasis" luring millions of visitors during prime hours each week, and that it is unconstitutional to charge them an additional fee to visit the oasis, while the persons already within the oasis are not required to pay the same fee. All this congestion pricing fee amounts to is a discriminatory tax on non-residents, essentially, which should be declared unconstitutional, as a denial of equal protection of law, and as an unreasonable (unconstitutional) burden on interstate commerce. 2. NYC Voters Can Undo Congestion Pricing by Voter Initiative New York voters have done very little over the years to defend their interests against politicians who give away New York City and taxpayer's money to the real estate interests and other vested interests, mainly the interests who put up the huge funds needed to win election campaigns. New York State is not fortunate to have much in the way of voter rights, particularly the rights of impeachment, recall, initiative and referendum, but cities, towns, villages and possibly counties in New York State have the right to pass laws under Section 37 of the New York Municipal Law (or as to NYC, sometimes under Section 40 of the New York City Charter). Thus, if voters in The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island and the upper part of Manhattan (north of 86th Street) feel that congestion pricing is outrageous and discriminatory against them, they can put a NYC proposed statute on the ballot during general elections and obtain enactment of the proposed statute by a simple majority of the voters. This process is called a voter "initiative" to enact legislation, and it is a most powerful weapon for voters. I wrote the petition for a current voter initiative to set up a Commission to Investigate 9/11 with the power of subpoena, and to name me as the New York City Attorney General, to enforce the Commission's subpoenas and, quite independently, to finance the work of the Commission pursuing litigation for NYC, and to enforce the rights of New York residents, voters, homeowners, workers and small business persons at public expense, such as the right not to have their jobs sold out from under them and the right to acceptable air quality, and the right of 9/11 first responders to obtain appropriate relief. A copy of the petition is available at Website with Copy of Petition for 9/11 Initiative. A copy of a petition to create a NYC Attorney General with subpoena power (but without a 9/11 Commission) can be seen at 29 NYC Ballot Initiatives for Use as Forms for Any City, Town or Village in NYS. One of the most interesting things about this initiative process (similar to the "referendum" process in other states, including California), is how it contrasts with the process for electing candidates to public office. We know that candidates make promises, convince voters to vote for them, and then never fulfill or even try to fulfill their promises after they are elected. We are used to that, but fall for the same ruse over and over again. The difference with the initiative or referendum process is that if the voters vote for it, they get whatever it is they voted for! That's an amazing thing to happen in this era of wholesale voter fraud by the candidates and their handlers. Although you won't get lower taxes when you vote for a candidate who promises to lower your taxes, you and the candidate realize that this could be the case. The one candidate does not have the power himself/herself to lower taxes. It takes a cooperative effort. So the politicians when running for office cooperate with each other by lying all over the place about what they plan to do, and then when the election is over the winners then proceed to do almost anything but try to enact what they promised the voters. With congestion pricing, we can overturn it at the ballot box, not by voting for a different mayor or city council membership, but by voting for an initiative which declares congestion pricing to be illegal, or not to be used in NYC. Also, we can do the same as to other rules and regulations which are detrimental to voters, such as the proposed rule that would require a video or camera team to have insurance (costing tens of thousands of dollars) if they set up to shoot on a public sidewalk or street for 10 minutes or more. This would prohibit anyone from obtaining pictures of disasters or police brutality, which perhaps is why the rule is being proposed. Also, we can pass one or more NYC statutes to cure many of the government-created causes of traffic congestion. See the list below. 3. 2 New Types of Job in NYC - Intersection Controllers and Intersection Ticketers One last point before going to my list below. My car has been heating up because of getting stuck in traffic in NYC and I've had a lot of time to observe how some congestion could easily be eliminated. Just today (when writing this web page), it took me 30 minutes to travel about 25 blocks heading south on Fifth Avenue, in the 50's through 30's, yet when I looked ahead I saw that there were no cars for about 6 blocks ahead. The reason for this is that buses, trucks, taxis and cars going cross town (from east to west or from west to east) were moving into the intersection and stopping there, so that the southbound traffic (including my car) couldn't move. All it would take is human beings to control the intersections (and have one or more other persons available at the intersection to issue tickets when appropriate or perhaps be able to impound the car for a penalty 1/2 hour or full hour). It is possible to stop vehicles from entering an intersection when it is clear that the vehicles have no room on the other side to get out of the intersection. Who would we get to do this, and what would be the cost? What is the cost, by the way, of not doing this? The cost of this artificial traffic congestion we are experiencing is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, of pollution effects, higher gas prices, higher vehicle repair costs, asthma and other health related costs, and the waiting time (such as my waiting time of about one hour on Sunday, August 12, 2007). I am only one of 1,000,000 persons each day who have to wait an unnecessary hour or two by reason of the NYC "traffic congestion". Let's assume for the sake of argument that we have 1,000,000 hours per day times 365 days per year, for a total of 365,000,000 wasted hours per year (times 2 for an average of two occupants in the car), which amounts to a loss of $100 per hour, or a total loss of $36.5 billion ($36,500,000,000). Now, let's see who is available to do this work. There are about 10 avenues in Manhattan, and about 100 cross streets needing "Intersection Controllers" (a name I'll give to this new group of workers), for a total of 1,000 intersections (100 times 10). At $10/hour per intersection controller, the cost would be $10,000 per hour, or $100,000 per 10-hour day, or 36,500,000, which is about 1/1000 of the loss-of-time cost, which seems like a pretty good bargain. Is there anyone in New York who would like to get a job for $10/hour, especially as a "law enforcement official"? Many retired persons might like the job; many unemployed persons might also like the job; many persons who are losing their homes and who can't pay their credit cards might like the job; many students might like the job to be able to pay school expenses; many public-assistance recipients might like the work. And then we have our local courts pumping out jail sentences so that the upstates existing (and planned) jails will remain full, as NYC's contribution to the economic well-being of upstate NY, to help them pay the NYC congestion pricing tax to some extent. Why not use non-violent prisoners who have been sentenced by our local courts to do this job. We already have them emptying garbage cans in the area; perhaps we should stick a red flag on the end of their broom and convert them into Intersection Controllers, and leave the garbage pickup to the Sanitation Department. Let's look at the cost and savings relating to use of a single Intersection Controller. If the Intersection Controller is paid $10 for one hour's work, he/she might be able to save the occupants of 50 cars (or 100 persons) an hour each of their time, for a saving of 100 hours of time. At $50 per hour in value, we can save $5,000 per hour in time at a cost of $10 in labor. If one ticket per hour is issued by the accompanying Intersection Ticketer (another type of job), for a fine of $100 (for blocking the intersection), such single ticket per hour (issued to the worst offender, and not intended to be a program to ticket everyone), would produce revenues of about $60 per controlled intersection in excess of the $20 labor cost (building in $20 for ticket non-payment and costs of administration of the ticketing process). Thus, the cost of eliminating or substantially eliminating perhaps the greatest contributor to the congestion problem would be less than zero (if you disregard the revenue NYC would lose from creating and maintaining the congestion problem). Also, as a highly beneficial by-product, the intersection controller would be able to stop pedestrians from standing in driving lanes; and crossing a street when the light is yellow or red. In addition, the Intersection Controller would be able to speed up both vehicular and pedestrian traffic by disabling (or disregarding) the traffic lights and directing traffic using techniques designed to maximize the flow of both vehicles and pedestrians as to all directions of traffic. New York Port Authority Should Immediately Employ Intersection Controllers at Its Intersections The New York Port Authority should immediately implement this website's suggestion that Intersection Controllers be hired, for the intersections between the Lincoln Tunnel (or its approaches in Manhattan) and the various vehicle entrances to the Port Authority buildings between 8th and 9th Avenues, and 42nd through 40th Streets. It is outrageous that the NYPA does not stop the cars and buses from blocking the various intersections, especially the one at 9th Avenue and 40th Street, and the 9th and 39th street approach to the outgoing Lincoln Tunnel. 4. Appoint a NYC Task Force on Traffic Congestion Another thought. Why not have a task force on Traffic Congestion and invite motorists in to explain how they see congestion occurring and what they see can be done about it. Drivers in NYC, including myself, can see what is happening and we should be given a chance to be heard, and to recommend new rules to cure this "congestion", without imposing the odius congestion pricing tax on motorists. Do we need to have bus tours adding to the congestion in midtown Manhattan? Do we need two lanes occupied by a truck hoisting a window washer? Do we need delivery trucks during the congestion period? Can't we tell people coming into Manhattan the best way to get to their destination (identified by a EZ-Pass type device which can indicate the vehicle's ZIP Code destination (and a printout at the toll booth telling the driver the best way to avoid congestion on his/her way to the destination? Also, have you ever heard of any prior NYC Administration placing a parking lot in the middle of one of the avenues in Manhattan (or anywhere else in the five Boroughs)? During October, 2007, I was driving down 9th Avenue, south of 23rd Street, and saw a most amazing construction job taking place. NYC was building a parking lot with meters in the middle of 9th Avenue (in lane 2 of the 5 lane avenue, counting from east to west). The new parking lot extends to about 17th Street. Unbelievable! But fully understood as just another means by which NYC creates the congestion deliberately, for the purpose of being able to enact a congestion pricing tax. We can't let NYC get away with this. 5. Track Specific Vehicles in NYC to Estimate Their Contribution to Congestion One frequent way for police to solve a crime is to "follow the money". To some extent, congestion is caused by crime - the failure of drivers and pedestrians to obey rules designed to benefit the majority, beause of the immediate gain in saving of time and/or money resulting from individual drivers and pedestrians disobeying the rules. So, why not follow a number of these violators, to see how much each of them contributes to traffic congestion in NYC. This could show that we are attempting to penalize the wrong people. We should actually follow (without disclosing this) specific selected vehicles during their movement in NYC to actually estimate the amount of congestion they cause by the way in which they move, park, stand, unload, load, wait, etc. I would take 3 specific Gray Line NYC Sightseeing Tour buses; 10 yellow cabs (i.e., cabs with medallions); 3 black cars (taxis licensed by the NYC TL&C without a yellow-cab medallion); 5 NYC buses (different routes); 20 large delivery trucks and 20 small delivery trucks (covering different industries); 3 pedicabs and 1 octopus bike used simultaneously by up to 7 peddle-pushers; 30 non-commercial, private vehicles and 10 private limousines; 10 police cars and 5 Cushman scooters (from different precincts); 6 NY Police Dept. towing trucks (from different areas or home bases); various construction vehicles such as cranes and materials delivery trucks; and 3 sign rigging trucks (from the largest sign rigging companies). The information to be collected should include alternatives that were available but not used by the vehicle driver being followed. Let the results be given to economists, business professors and business students to analyze what such information reveals about the causes and cures for NYC's "congestion" problem. We should be able to determine a substantial part of the causes and cures of NYC's "congestion" problem in this way. 6. Why Should the Federal Government Offer NYC $350 million to Impose a Multi-Billion "Congestion Tax" on Motorists? ANSWER: to turn the Transportation System over to private enterprise for their ownership and profit as a monopoly. The 8/14/07 New York Post, at page 2, in a story entitled "DECONGESTION! - Feds OK $350M for mass transit but tie it to midtown toll plan". What is the federal government's interest in having New Yorkers pay an increased tax? Why does NYC have to be bribed to impose the tax if the tax is so good for New Yorkers? The U.S. Department of Transportation is announcing the grant on the same day, in Washington, D.C. The grant falls short of the $536 million that Mayor Bloomberg sought from the Feds, but the $350,000,000 is amount is sufficient, according to the NYPost, to convince NYS lawmakers to approve the project. Why do New York State lawmakers have any say in the amount of tolls on NYC's roads, and who gets this money? Does NYS take any part? If so, why and for what? The Feds apparently are insisting that there be an express bus lane built over the East River, according to one "source" (apparently in the federal DOT). The next step, according to the NYPost, is that a 17-member commission will study ways to decreate traffic, including congestion pricing. I hope they take a look at this website, because congestion can be eliminated in the same way that it is being caused, by NYC government action. Finally, the NYPost article states that the Commission's findings must be approved by the Mayor and City Council before going back to the NYS Legislature for a vote by March 31, 2008. What would happen if NYC voters reversed the Mayor and City Council by passing a ballot initiative withdrawing NYC's approval for congestion pricing? See point 2 above entitled "NYC Voters Can Undo Congestion Pricing by Voter Initiative". In answer to the question of why the feds are getting involved, my conclusion is that they are doing it for no legitimate reason. Or to put it another way, the federal government appears to be creating a means for consolidating into PRIVATE OWNERSHIP the northeastern corridor transportation and eliminate local and state boundaries and interests in this for-profit transportation grab. Remember the book Confessions of a Hit Man by the former head of the World Bank, who confesses that the U.S. government policy was to put third-world countries into default and have private enterprise in the U.S. take over ownership of their natural resources. Now, the federal government seems to be doing something similar in the U.S. The Feds are merely acting for the private interests waiting to come in and own and profit from the consolidated transportation system. The Feds mislead the public by conveniently overlooking that there is no real congestion; it is congestion created by government to increase federal governmental authority over local and state interests, to be able to hand the transportation system over to private interests. The Feds will be as successful with regional transportation policy as they have been in trying to put New Orleans back together again after Katrina. The fact that Singapore and London have imposed congestion pricing doesn't mean we have to do the same in NYC. For more information see Regional Planning Association Website, the Regional Planning Association functioning as a behind-the-scenes government. Another Swindle similar to the "Security Prosperity Partnership of North America" If you think that the present federal government is not attempting to give away your country to private interests, take a look at this "government" website created and owned by private, undisclosed interests: Security Prosperity Partnership of North America Website, the primary focus of which faceless group is to create, own and run the "The Trans-Texas Corridor of the NAFTA Super Highway", under construction now, part of a NAFTA super highway, running from Mexico, through Texas and north through states north of Texas, into Canada, as a privately-owned toll road, presumably being built with non-American (lower-cost) labor and materials, with the highway being owned by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos. For more information read Human Events Article by Jerome R. Corsi entitled "Texas Segment of NAFTA Super Highway Nears Construction". For forther information see the Regional Planning Association's website at Regional Planning Association Website. Incidentally, Rudy Giuliani (through his Texas law firm, Bracewell and Giuliani) is promoting the interests of the SSP. At Rudy Giuliani's Interest in the Security Prosperity Partnership, it was stated: Guess who's company is involved in lobbying for the Texas segment of NASCO? Rudi Giuliani's Texas lawfirm, Bracewell and Giuliani! See their press release, http://www.bracewellgiuliani.com/ind...d_in_Texas.cfm. See also: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=55695 Now, that I've thrown out these ideas, here is more information about the alleged congestion problem. Part I - Basic Facts about NYC There are 18,000 miles of highway with parking potential (after eliminating more than 1,000 miles of "arterial highways"). [See http://bikeroute.com/NBGBikingCities/NewYorkCity/NYCBiking.php] There is a potential, at 50% utilization, for parking to accomodate 8 million cars at any one time. In contrast, NYC maintains only 62,000 single-car parking meters. There were 1,653,193 "standard series" (i.e, passenger-car) vehicle registrations in force during 2006 and a total of 1,833,370 vehicles of all types (including standard, commercial, trailer, motorcycle, moped, bus, taxi, ambulance, rental and farm). These are figures published by the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles. About 310,000 cars (including taxis) come into the congested area of Manhattan each day through one of the free bridge crossings or one of the toll bridges or tunnels. An additional number of cars (guesstimated by me to be an additional 30% also come into such area, through the Bronx), for total of about 400,000 cars each day (including taxis). Taxis often make multiple trips, and I’m going to assume that 25% of the 400,000 cars are taxis, so that only 300,000 cars enter Manhattan each day for which parking is needed. "There are over 2,000 garages and lots licensed by DCA in New York, and over 305,000 spaces." [http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/60313.htm?CFID=2505020&CFTOKEN=99659943] I think it is a safe assumption to say that most of these 305,000 parking lot spaces are in the congested area. Let’s assume 60%, or about 180,000 of these spaces. [The NYC Department of Consumer Affairs licenses parking lots and should be able to provide an accurate figure.] With all of these facts, it seems to be simple to conclude that NYC could find ample parking and eliminate congestion without imposing the planned congestion pricing tax. The congestion pricing plan is actually a fraud. NYC has the ability to cure congestion in a variety of ways. I explain what these ways are in Part II below. History of Congestion Pricing: London - started at 5 pounds (@ $1.58 = $7.90), and now increased to 8 pounds = $14.64, with additional increases undoubtedly coming. Effort by NYC to obtain $500 million federal grant, or so it is claimed. Who is the federal bureaucrat making such enormous decisions for the people of NYC? Or is NYC creating a false sense of urgency by getting a federal official to create a sham deadline for NYC action? REAL PURPOSE: To place an unfair tax on motorists and consumers who would be most directly affected by the congestion pricing, through payment of the additional prices to enter NYC and to pay a higher amount for goods that are trucked in to mid-Manhattan. Also, the purpose is to drive middle class and lower-class residents out of NYC, and increase the occupation of NYC by the wealthy corporations and their officers, directors and employees, for whom the added expense would be a minor deductible expense. Part II. - Numerous Ways to Cure the "Congestion" Problem without Taxing Motorists The current proposal to adopt congestion pricing - $8 for cars and $21 for trucks -- estimated $500,000,000 per year - South of 86th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Alleged Purpose: to reduce traffic in lower Manhattan; obtain up to $500,000,000 in Federal funds; and obtain additional revenues for NYC from the persons least able to pay, without calling such revenues taxes. The causes of congestion should not be blamed on the motorists who drive to, from and within NYC. There are perhaps 70 to 100 other reasons, a number of which I outline below. By dealing with the problems below directly, we can get at the causes of congestion, rather than imposing a tax on motorists coming into NYC (similar to NYC's effort to tax commuters). Causes of Congestion: A.. Buildings/Construction (8) 1. New buildings that don’t provide sufficient in-building parking for the tenants 2. New buildings adding to people congestion in the area 3. New building construction blocking lanes 4. Stopping traffic to speed up construction 5. Double-parking line of construction trucks for excavation removal 6. New buildings that eliminate some roadways 7. Stationing a sizeable sign-installation truck (with 2 stabilizing extensions) in 1.5 lanes of the 5-lane 9th Avenue (at the NW corner of 55th Street) during the entire work day on or about July 19, 2007 to enable a single window washer to be elevated throughout the day to each floor of the 12-story building where he carefully cleaned each of the approximately 100 windows on the 9th Avenue side of the building, thereby imposing congestion on motorists while saving money for the building owner and window-washing trucker 8. Metropolitan Lumber's continual use of 11th Avenue and 45th Street in the loading and unloading of a fleet of trucks throughout the day, causing a loss of lanes, 2 bottlenecks, and a buildup of traffic at the bottlenecks, thereby saving money for Metropolitan and its construction company customers by enabling Metropolitan to use 11th Avenue and 45th Street as an integral part of its construction materials distribution business without being required to rent the necessary space, which creates daily congestion and loss of time for NYC motorists, and "justifies" NYC adding a "congestion pricing" tax to such innocent motorists, and doing nothing at all to cure the real cause of such congestion. B.. NYC – Failures - NYC Failures Having Greatest Impact on NYC Congestion (29) 9. Failure to appoint anyone to try to reduce congestion in other ways 10. Failure to view congestion as a bureaucracy-building opportunity to solve the congestion problem in available ways other than by creating a bureaucracy to raise additional taxes from hapless motorists 11. Failure to have an investigation by a NYC agency or official into the causes of congestion 12. Failure to reduce the required 15-foot no-parking zone on either side of NYC’s 108,000 hydrants to 7.5 feet on either side, thereby losing 15 x 108,000 or 1,720,000 feet of parking space, which at 16 feet per car (enough space for medium-size cars) amounts to a loss of parking for 107,500 cars. Note: "Australian cities such [as] Adelaide allow parking within one metre [i.e., 3 feet, 3.4 inches from the] fire hydrant – plenty [of] room [for the] burliest firefighters [to] get through." [http://www.urban-renaissance.org/urbanren/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=8914] 13. Failure to move fire hydrants to end of block where there would be no parking on the intersection side of the hydrant, thereby saving 15 feet of parking space times 108,000 fire hydrants, enough for 107,500 cars 14. Failure to reduce the typical distance of perhaps 22 feet between NYC’s estimated 62,000 "single-space" parking meters to 16 feet, thereby obtaining as much as 1,000,000 feet of additional parking, for approximately 23,250 medium-size cars (at 16 feet per car). Cars unable to fit in these smaller spaces would have to find commercial parking, which would be a major inducement for NYC residents to switch to smaller vehicles 15. Failure to optimize the number of parking spaces on each block by adjusting the size of each space taking into account driveways, fire hydrants (repositioned to the end of each block), and an emphasis upon smaller spaces at a suggested ratio of 3 small spaces to every large space. As pure guesswork, this could create 50,000 more parking spaces in addition to the spaces discussed above 16. Failure to distribute government agencies and offices to other boroughs and other parts of Manhattan 17. Failure to provide means when cars/trucks enter NYC to have roadmap showing them the fastest (least congested) way to get to their destination, such as a printout showing best way to a specified ZIP Code in NYC, which ZIP Code could be provided by an EZ type pass transponder with the printout provided at the toll booth or to a receiving screen in the motorist’s vehicle 18. Failure to have a real-time warning and detour system to enable motorists to know where congestion, obstructions, and road or bridge closings exist and the best routes to avoid them 19. Failure to establish and maintain a system of traffic-obstacle/congestion reports and a publicly accessable website enabling motorists to get a printout of directions to their destination taking into account (i) the current obstructions and congestion, and (ii) anticipated congestion near any stadiums or Madison Square Garden when events are being held 20. Failure to enable Intersection Controllers or intersection police or a computerized means to temporarily change the setting of traffic lights at an intersection to enable the flow in a North or South direction to be increased by decreasing the East and West flow, or vice versa; the Intersection Controller could work more efficiently if he/she had the capability of changing the traffic lights to coincide with the controller's desired directions to drivers and pedestrians 21. Failure to allow 15-minute parking with headlights and flashers on at fire hydrants and driveways 22. Failure to paint a stripe on either side of NYC’s 105,000 fire hydrants to indicate the point up to which parking is or at designated time is legal (i.e., 15 feet away from a fire hydrant – outside edge or center?), thereby requiring most drivers to give excessive distance from the hydrant when legally parking - averaging about 4 feet – causing a loss of parking space amounting to 8 feet x 105,000 hydrants or 840,000 feet (which is about 160 miles of additional parking space, or space enough for 52,500 cars up to 15 feet in length with 1 foot of distance from the next car (which nearby car would also have 1 foot of space, on the average) 23. Failure to adopt meter and toll-booth pricing based on the length of the car, with the shortest cars (contributing the least to adverse air quality, traffic congestion and parking congestion) having low or no-fee rates, with the rates increased as the cars get longer 24. Failure to adopt rush-hour congestion parking prices at municipal meters and parking-meter payment boxes to discourage feeding of the meters by local merchants and employees 25. Failure to identify road closings (such as for fairs, parades or emergencies) or bridge closings a sufficient number of blocks ahead of the closing to enable motorists to detour. Perhaps the fair industry should provide portable electric signs to be placed at strategic points around the fair-closed road(s) to warn and redirect motorists 26. Failure to have community, non-profit program for local or non-profit ticketing of intersection-rule offenders, with the ticketing proceeds to go for community improvements (through a democratic process involving voters and their preferences) or to non-profit organizations meeting specified standards 27. Failure to use congestion pricing in the public transportation system to lure motorists away from their vehicles 28. Failure to use satellite images, helicopters and strategically-placed traffic cameras to determine the place where stalled traffic begins, and to deal with the problem at the source. Often, you can identify this precise spot by seeing the point at which there is no traffic ahead (similar to the way traffic opens up after rubber-necking drivers pass a highway accident scene) and can resume their 70 MPH speed. 29. Failure to provide free public transportation at all times or during designated hours (such as rush hours) to lure motorists away from their vehicles 30. Failure to limit pedestrians to first 33% of green-light time at intersections 31. Failure to have Intersection [traffic] Controllers to manage pedestrian movement at intersections [see no. 3 heading above for further development of this point, including the use of Intersection Ticketers - the proposed use would be mainly for vehicles.] 32. Failure to use municipal employees, welfare recipients, local residents and non-profit organizations to direct traffic at intersections 33. Failure to input into a computer database the existence of all traffic-obstructing situations such as a pothole, recent road repair with a barrier still obstructing traffic, lane or road closed for repairs – with follow-ups to ensure the barrier is removed on a timely basis. NYC failed to learn from the highly effective pothole registration activities of the NYS Trial Lawyers Association how timely reports on road conditions can be obtained and inputted, with the added feature of monitoring these traffic obstructions to do what is necessary to eliminate them (and their existence in the database) as quickly as possible B-23.. Failure to ticket all city-owned vehicles and require their drivers to personally pay for violating NYC’s parking laws, with free parking violation passes issued to a limited number (such as 150) NYC vehicles and distributed to the vehicles having the greatest need to violate the parking rules. Fire trucks, ambulances, police and other emergency vehicles would be exempt from parking tickets (without any such free pass) when the vehicles are actually being used for an emergency. 34. Failure to use police or parking enforcement agents to direct traffic, especially at intersections; they are used instead to issue tickets which creates more congestion 35. Failure to eliminate free parking for NYC police, teachers, commissioners, assistant commissioners, their drivers, and others, and convert their existing parking spaces to public parking spaces 36. Failure to give bounty to NYC residents who issue tickets to motorists blocking intersections 37. Failure to use city-owned lots and other property for parking 38. Failure of NYC to require parking lots in proportion to traffic, while allowing additional buildings which add to the congestion 39. Failure by NYC to have incentives to convert unused land or condemned or uneconomic/unused buildings into parking places (through direct grants; faster approval for building permits; or other tradeoffs) 40. Failure to consider where NYC could and should set up free parking facilities in areas away from the traffic congested to encourage motorists to complete their trip to the congested area by means other than private motor vehicle C.. NYC - Failures - Lesser-Impact NYC Failures (4) 41. Failure of police to pull to curb when stopping motorists 42. Failure to remove traffic-blocking vehicles (even if by helicopter) from accident scene to a less-used location 43. Failure to have timed lights in proper order - should have private companies be able to compete for repair and use fines from citizen ticketing of intersection blocking to pay for private companies to fix on expedited basis 44. Failure to immunize from issuance of parking tickets to motorists who squeeze between two cars lawfully parked in two large metered parking spaces. The uncertainty of legality (both as to being a 3rd vehicle and time running out on either or both meters) discourages such type of parking. This would free up an additional 4,000 parking spaces, it is guesstimated D.. NYC – Other (20) 45. Tunnel congestion, cured by tunnel congestion pricing (lower or Zero prices during non-congestion periods) 46. Failing to provide for rapid dispersion of rush-hour traffic at streets and avenues nearest tunnel exits in NYC and exits in NJ 47. Unnecessary denial of standing or parking, which causes cars and trucks to be on the street instead when they desire to stand still 48. Overly aggressive parking enforcement, driving persons into moving traffic to avoid tickets 49. Street Fairs, not wanted by residents or local merchants 50. Bicycle lanes 51. Ticketing productivity requirements causing slowdowns by reason of the slow-moving enforcement-related vehicles (police cars, police scooters, police bicycles, police horses, police vans, police unmarked cars, police yellow cabs, TLC enforcement vehicles, police tow trucks, and other enforcement persons looking for violations 52. Deliberately slowing down of traffic at NYC toll booths (in contrast to EZ pass toll collection at 65 MPH on New Jersey Turnpike) 53. Slow moving police and other enforcement vehicles causing backup of traffic behind them 54. Towing of vehicles causing lane blockage for the circling of 1,000 tow trucks, the hitching-up operations, and the tow itself 55. Free parking for NYC employees, police, school, others (which also reduces any desire for public servants to cure the congestion problem) 56. Motor vehicle traps causing lineups of vehicles 57. 16-car police convoys with flashing red lights tying up traffic each day 58. Building sites for non-New Yorkers to visit without providing sufficient parking (e.g., the Javits Convention Center) 59. Closing down Central Park to motor vehicle traffic 60. Road repair delays 61. Antiquated and broken traffic light systems 62. Total number of government vehicles on street 63. Parking NYC vehicles (e.g. garbage trucks along Amsterdam Ave. in 90’s) 64. If a congestion plan is adopted, contrary to the best interests of New Yorkers, it should (i) remember that the London plan provided a 90% discount for London residents; (ii) give congestion-area motorists a 100% (or $8) credit for taking the car outside of the congested area during the congestion period, and take away the credit if the car is brought back in to the congested area during the same congestion period E.. Cars/Trucks/Taxis/Pedestrians/Others (6) 65. More and more residents occupying new and reconverted buildings – creating pedestrian/intersection congestion 66. Delivery trucks during rush hours instead of non-rush hours 67. Use of road by Pedicabs, horsedrawn carriages, and bicycles 68. Double and triple parking delivery trucks 69. Circling of cars to find parking 70. Circling of cars to avoid fines for "standing" or illegal parking Part III - Unintended or Secretly-Desired Consequences of Congestion Pricing * More parking available so fewer parking tickets and congestion-related moving violations (offsetting the dollar gains with dollar losses) * Would keep vehicles in areas (particularly The Bronx) where respiratory diseases including asthma exist to a substantially greater extent than in lower Manhattan * Additional vehicles will pour in anyway, so that nothing changes except a tax on cars and trucks, increasing the cost of living for those persons * Failure to impose congestion pricing on the real culprits (see Part II above) * NYC fails to get the $500 million from the Federal Government, or would have obtained such amount anyway, without imposition of congestion pricing * Avoids dealing with the real reasons for congestion and placing the blame on the wrong people to impose additional taxes on them instead of the public as a whole (or the major corporations that fail to pay their fair share of NYC taxes). * Make lower Manhattan too costly for residents of NYC and thereby put a fence around lower Manhattan to discourage many New Yorkers and residents of Long Island, Westchester County and New Jersey from visiting, working or living in lower Manhattan * Maintaining the existing system of inadequate number of parking spaces to require motorists to double park, slowly circle the block, feed meters and create congestion while trying to find a parking place, and maintaining the motorists' exposure to various types of fines and towing charges, which is one of NYC's main purposes in not wanting to provide adequate parking for motorists and creating a sham "congestion" problem. Carl E. Person, LawMall Editor, carlpers@ix.netcom.com 12 April 2012 Last updated at 22:31 ET Share this page Muhammed cartoon revenge plot trial to open in Denmark Protesters outside the Danish embassy in London, 2006 The publication of the cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Muhammed sparked protests around the world. Continue reading the main story Related Stories Row over Danish cartoon escalates Danish Muslims despair at portrayal Danish cartoons 'plotters' held Four men accused of planning an attack on a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad are set to stand trial. The men, all Swedish residents, are going to court in Denmark after allegedly plotting an armed attacked on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. It published 12 cartoons of Islam's holiest figure in 2005, sparking riots in Muslim countries. The four men have been charged with terrorism offences. Munir Awad, Omar Abdallah Aboelazm and Munir Ben Mohamed Dhahri were picked up by police in December 2010 at a flat near the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Sabhi Ben Mohamed Zalouti was arrested a day later after he crossed back into Sweden. Islamist target Swedish and Danish intelligence officials said they had been tracking the men for a number of months. Police allege that they intended to cause havoc and kill as many people as possible in a Mumbai-style attack. Denmark remains a target for Islamist militants more than six years after Jyllands-Posten first published the cartoons. Many Muslims were offended by the drawings, which violate the Islamic rule banning depictions of the prophet. At the time, Danish flags were burned and its embassies were attacked. The news paper later apologised, but that did not stop it being targeted by angry Islamists. One broke into the house of one of the cartoonists and tried to kill him with an axe, while another botched an attempt to bomb the newspaper's offices. September 22, 2011 Harsh Words From Turkey About Israel, and From Iran About United States By NEIL MacFARQUHAR UNITED NATIONS — Evidently heedless of American attempts to engineer a thaw in Turkish-Israeli relations, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey used his appearance before the annual General Assembly on Thursday to enumerate a long list of grievances with Israel, a former regional ally. Mr. Erdogan was the second major Middle Eastern leader addressing the General Assembly, with the widespread focus on the region’s most intractable problem, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, due to culminate Friday with speeches by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. Representatives of the so-called quartet — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — were still trying late Thursday to reach an agreement on a statement about moving peace negotiations forward, intended to counterbalance the controversial proposal for United Nations membership that Mr. Abbas has vowed to present. The future of the Quartet could be at risk, some diplomats suggested, with the Americans and the Europeans, close to an agreement, ready to abandon the other two members and issue a statement by themselves. It could go down to the very moment after the Netanyahu and Abbas speeches, the diplomats said. At the General Assembly, a couple of hours before Mr. Erdogan spoke, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, delivered one of his characteristic anti-Western broadsides, embroidered with tinges of religious mysticism. He blamed the United States, Israel and Europe for the global recession and a list of other ills. He also suggested that the American military’s killing of Osama bin Laden last May and the disposal of his body at sea were part of a dark conspiracy to conceal the real perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks provoked what has become a ritual large-scale walkout of delegations, led by the United States. Mr. Erdogan, describing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “bleeding wound” that the international community can no longer accept, accused Israel of thwarting all attempts to solve the problem. From nuclear weapons to control of the occupied territories to humanitarian aid, Mr. Erdogan said, Israel has contradicted the wishes and norms of the rest of the world. “If you want to send a box of tomatoes to Palestine, this is subject to approval from Israel, and I don’t think that is humanitarian,” Mr. Erdogan said, suggesting that the new spirit of change in the Middle East meant Israel could no longer continue to foster strife. The Turkish leader repeated a drumbeat of accusations against the Israelis that he has leveled for months, and there was no immediate reaction from Israel. The tension is rooted in differences over the Gaza Strip, particularly a May 2010 raid by the Israeli military on a Turkish-organized flotilla trying to run the Gaza blockade, which left eight Turks and a Turkish-American dead. Turkey rejected a United Nations report that found the blockade legal but said Israel had used excessive force. Mr. Erdogan’s veiled threats to take action against joint efforts by Israel and Cyprus over gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean did elicit a response from Demetris Christofias, the president of Cyprus, divided into hostile Turkish and Greek halves. He called Turkish naval maneuvers in the area “provocative and a real danger for further complications in the region.” Mr. Ahmadinejad, appearing before the General Assembly for the seventh year in a row, said poverty, homelessness and denial of basic rights were traceable to “greed for materialism in the United States and Europe.” Iran has been estranged from the United States since the Islamic Revolution more than 30 years ago, and Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech has become something of a signature event at the annual session. There were no surprises in either his criticisms or his singular interpretation of world events. As he has done in previous speeches, Mr. Ahmadinejad raised questions about the Holocaust, blaming the West for using it as an excuse for unwavering support for Israel and for the oppression of the Palestinian people. “They threaten anyone who questions the Holocaust and Sept. 11 with sanctions and military action?” he said. By the time he got to that line in his 30-minute speech, the low-level American and European diplomats who had been there were no longer around. The United States delegation was the first to leave when Mr. Ahmadinejad referred to the Sept. 11 attacks as “mysterious” and suggested that the decision to kill Bin Laden, instead of bringing him to trial, was intended to bury the truth of who sent the planes to attack New York and Washington. “Is there any classified material secret that must remain a secret?” he said. After the Europeans walked out, the hall, not terribly full in the first place, was mostly empty. Oddly, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, whose government has repeatedly blamed Iran rather than domestic ills for inflaming the Shiite population there, stuck around. The United States quickly condemned the speech, as did many other Western governments and nongovernmental organizations. “Mr. Ahmadinejad had a chance to address his own people’s aspirations for freedom and dignity, but instead he again turned to abhorrent anti-Semitic slurs and despicable conspiracy theories,” said Mark Kornblau, the spokesman for the United States Mission to the United Nations. The Iranian leader, whose previous visits to New York have been contentious, generated less interest this year. Though he did inspire protests outside the United Nations and his Midtown Manhattan hotel, his power clashes at home with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have cast some doubt over the extent of his authority. That doubt, in turn, has made him personally a less threatening figure, despite significant international concerns about important issues like the possibility that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting. Turkey bans Google Books, Google Docs, Google Translate... * Alert * Print * Post comment Collateral damage from YouTube snuff? By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author Posted in Music and Media, 8th June 2010 19:38 GMT Get Free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express Turkey has banned multiple Google services, according to reports, including Google Translate, Google Docs, and Google Books. But Mountain View believes the ban is accidental, a side effect of Turkey's longstanding ban on the Google-owned YouTube. According to the International Business Times, Turkey’s Telecommunications Presidency has released a statement saying said it has banned many Google IP addresses, but it did not provide reasons for doing so. The statement said that some addresses are completely inaccessible while others are merely slow to load. Reports claim problems with Google AppEngine, FeedBurner, AdWords, and Analytics as well as Google Translate, Google Docs, and Google Books. Apparently, the ban began on June 4. But Google tells The Reg that it believes these services were banned accidentally and that it's working with the Turkish government to solve the problem. "We have received reports that some Google applications are unable to be accessed in Turkey," reads a statement from the company. "The difficulty accessing some Google services in Turkey appears to be linked to the ongoing ban on YouTube. We are working to get our services back up as soon as possible." Turkish authorities have continuously blocked access to YouTube since May 2008, after users uploaded videos that insulted the Turkish republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. And the government previously banned the video-sharing site on at least three other occasions. Apparently, the first ban, in 2007, was a response to a parody news broadcast in which Greek football fans taunted the Turks by saying: "Today's news; Kemal Atatürk was gay!" Under Turkish law — Law 5651 — the courts can shut down a website of it attacks Atatürk or incites suicide, paedophilia, drug usage, obscenity, or prostitution. The original video was taken down, but prosecutors have since objected to countless other videos insulting Atatürk. Whether accidental or not, free-press outfit Reporters Without Boarders condemned Turkish authorities for extending the ban beyond YouTube, as it has long criticized the YouTube ban. “It is time the Turkish authorities demonstrated their commitment to free expression by putting an end to the censorship that affects thousands of websites in Turkey and by overhauling Law 5651 on the Internet, which allows this sort of mass blocking of sites,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The censorship of YouTube in particular seems to be an archaic form of control, one that prevents Turks from accessing Web 2.0’s potential... [this] trend has been accentuated by the current problems in accessing other services provided by Google, which are widely used by Turkish Internet users." The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) estimates that about 3,700 websites are “blocked for arbitrary and political reasons” in Turkey, including foreign websites, sites aimed at the country's Kurdish minority, and gay sites. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Turkey’s communications minister has called on Google to register as a taxpayer in the country, saying this would hasten a move towards lifting the YouTube ban. “The company should open a representation,” Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Tuesday. “YouTube is a taxpayer in 20 countries, and we want them to do the same in Turkey.” Google tells us that it does not operate servers in Turkey, but that it will work with the government to resolve this issue. "Google complies with tax law in every country in which it operates," reads another statement from the company. "We are currently in discussion with the Turkish authorities about this, and are confident we comply with Turkish law. We report profits in Turkey which are appropriate for the activities of our Turkish operations." ® Get Free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express Turkey Bans Google Access for "Legal" Reasons, but Why? BY Kit EatonWed Jun 9, 2010 Google Turkey Turkey has long blocked Google's YouTube service, but now it's announced an indefinite ban on Google search and other services, citing "legal reasons." Is it a sign that Turkish-U.S. relations have got sourer, or a mistake? The statement from Turkey's Telecommunications Presidency is at once clear and mystifying. It notes that many of Google's IP addresses have been banned outright, while access to some others has been crippled so they'll take long times to load. That's pretty emphatic. But the statement also refrained from mentioning whether the ban is a permanent change or a temporary sanction, and it gave no hint as to the driving motive. Instead we're left with the phrase "access to this site is banned by court order" hanging ominously in front of us--it's the message Turkish citizens see if they try to surf to barred Google properties. Turkey first barred access to YouTube back in 2007 for what the International Business Times refers to as "alleged insults against Turkish Republic founder [...] Ataturk," and since May 2008 the ban has been permanent. Users trying to gain access to YouTube in 2007 got the message "access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court," which is also similar to the current alert. The bar was imposed after what appears to have been a "virtual war" between Turkish and Greek users, culminating in the upload of videos to the service that insulted modern Turkey's founder. You can argue that this is the Turkish authorities acting in a fit of schoolyard-esque pique, but the ban is still in place, so it's obviously a slight that's deeply felt, even if Turkey is taking a low-brow "hammer to crack an egg" solution and blaming the wrong source. With sentiments like this among Turkey's legal system, there could be any number of reasons for this most recent escalation of Google state censorship. In the information vacuum from Turkey, one could easily point fingers at souring U.S.-Turkey relations, and the widely deplored attack on Turkish boats by Israel last week. But would the Turkish government really take this stance and use U.S.-based Google as a political tool to needle the Obama administration about its pro-Israel stance, or possibly even the U.S. approach to the Iranian nuclear fiasco? Or is it simpler than this, and Google was merely linking to many pieces of online content that the Turkish authorities deemed unacceptable all of a sudden? Over at The Register they're suggesting a different motivation. Google has communicated with them to say it believes the ban is an "accident," and it's trying to get to the bottom of it. That's quite some accident if it's true, and this PR-spin doesn't explain the Turkish statement on the sudden expansion of the YouTube ban to many more Google properties. You'd also expect pretty swift moves to clear up such a big "accident" on behalf of the Turkish government. What could be behind the ban is simply an attempt to strong-arm Google into paying taxes in Turkey, a political and financial hot topic in the country. But it seems nothing concerning this state-sponsored censorship is very clearly understood at the moment, which is odd given that the implications for Google are pretty big, and such high-profile censorship may even damage Turkish attempts at joining the European Union. Note::The most important thing to understand when reading this is the UNILATERAL military threats that Turkey is making and the use of Anti-Semitism to prop up his own political polularity. That is the EXACT formula that was used by Germany in the 1930's and it is very dangerous for Jews worldwide. --- Ruben Safir ~~~~~~~~~~` A comprehensive interview with Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "Turkey will face up to Israeli arrogance" - Part 1 Fahmi Huwaidi Thursday, 15 September 2011 11:25 Fahmi Huwaidi interviews Recep Tayyip Erdogan EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN PART 1 When Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks everyone listens carefully, especially now that Turkey's Prime Minister has become the most outspoken, most credible and most respected amongst leaders in the Middle East and his government is a key regional player. He has a say in all important political issues to the extent that some Israeli papers have described him as the Gamal Abdul-Nasser of today. In this interview conducted with Erdogan in Ankara before he left for a tour of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, he talked about the issues and the changes in the Arab world. (1) On the day I arrived in Ankara, Israel's Maariv newspaper published an article headed "Age of weakness" by Nadav Eyal, in which he wrote about the "the political hurricane" facing the Zionist state. He said that the government in Ankara was challenging Israel, announcing to the world the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and the downgrading of economic relations. Eyal said that Turkey is open about the possibility of a confrontation between the two countries over Israel's gas exploration in the Mediterranean, and does not hesitate to threaten Cyprus, a member of the European Union. When Israel is facing this sort of crisis in its relations with a senior member of NATO and a regional superpower, there have to be strategic changes highlighting Israeli weakness and erosion of status. Eyal added pointedly that on the day Turkey downgraded its diplomatic ties with Israel and imposed sanctions on its erstwhile ally, it also announced its agreement for a NATO surveillance system to be established on its territory. Ankara wanted to send a clear message to Europe and Washington that it is not breaking relations with the West, only Israel. This was clever of the Turks and not so good for Israel. The Israeli papers were full of such articles. According to Haaretz (2 September), the world is tired of Israel; Maariv (4 September) said that the Israeli army made a mistake by killing nine Turks on the Mavi Marmara in the Freedom Flotilla, and Israel is paying the price now. Haaretz (2 September) described Israel as "a state in danger". On 7 September Maariz said that an apology to Turkey would spare Israel the strategic damage caused by the sanctions. On the same date Haaretz said that Israel was under siege, not just Gaza. (2) I told Erdogan that his recent action surprised everyone and has shuffled the cards in the region to the extent that some Israeli parties are raising the spectre of war. Although Defence Minister Ehud Barak disagreed with the commander of the home front at the Institute for National Security Studies on this point, it has to be taken seriously. The Prime Minister said that nothing surprised the Turks. "Ever since the Flotilla raid, we have been clear in our demands: an Israeli apology to the Turkish people and government; compensation for the victims' families; and an end to the inhumane and illegal siege on Gaza." He means it, he told me, but two problems have arisen. First, Israel is not used to being held to account for its actions and regards itself above the law and exempt from any accountability when it commits mistakes or crimes. Second, Israel is like a spoilt child. "Not content with practising state terrorism against the Palestinians, it behaves in a reckless, irresponsible manner and is surprised when someone tells it to respect others and respect the law." But does he not consider that hinting at possible armed confrontation has no sound basis? Israel does not want to recognise its mistakes, he replied, or acknowledge that the world around it has changed. "It does not want to understand that there is a democracy in Turkey keen to advocate and defend its people's dignity." Moreover, Israel has not quite recognised the essence of the changes taking place in the Arab world with the people calling for freedom and dignity. "On the contrary, Israel refused to listen to some rational voices from the West recognising what is happening in the region and calling on it to apologise to Turkey for killing its citizens." "So what did Israel do?" asked Erdogan before answering his own question: "Israel rushes to make accusations of anti-Semitism against anyone who criticises its policies, and some Zionist extremists talk of war." The Prime Minister points out that all his country did in response to Israel's "arrogance" was to call for it to abide by international law and justice to protect the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel reverted to type and behaved like a spoilt brat, refusing to own up to its mistakes. When I mentioned the UN commission chaired by Sir Geoffrey Palmer which cleared Israel of aggression against the Flotilla, Erdogan was dismissive. "The [Palmer] report has no value; it is a sham. It has legitimized the siege on Gaza and thus opened the way to afford legitimacy to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories." Palmer's report, he added, not only contradicts itself but also the Covenant of the United Nations. "We do not recognise it and we will resort to international justice to defend the rights of our people and government. We have in our possession reports and documents which definitely incriminate Israel." (3) When I asked the Turkish Prime Minister to expand on this point, he said that there are facts about the Flotilla incident which are incontrovertible: The ships were in international waters, for example, 78 miles from the Gaza shoreline; the Flotilla was on a peaceful mission carrying humanitarian relief with no weapons whatsoever; Israeli soldiers stormed the ships by sea and air and they shot peaceful passengers who came from 33 countries altogether for humanitarian purposes; those soldiers shot and killed nine Turkish citizens and wounded many more from other countries, one of whom was a 19 year-old boy with dual Turkish-US citizenship; "we have forensic medical reports proving that they were killed deliberately". Forensic evidence shows that Furkan Dugan was killed by a bullet to his head fired from a distance of 30cm. A total of 35 bullets killed the nine Turks; five of those bullets were in Dugan's body. Erdogan added that he told this to US President Barak Obama and that Washington had let down one of its citizens; the President made no comment. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen described Furkan Dugan as "The Forgotten American". At that time, said Erdogan, Turkey had to make its position clear about the naked aggression: "This was not about the Israeli people, but about the state's conduct." He is adamant that the defence of Turkey's own people is more important than relations with Israel, "so we demanded of Israel three things which were mentioned earlier an official apology, compensation and lifting of the blockade of Gaza." The Prime Minister explained that that was the first step taken in trying to deal with the situation. After raising the issue in many international circles, an investigation commission was formed and a report of 200 pages was issued after a year. "We were very patient during that time and agreed to postpone the report's publication to give diplomacy a chance to solve the crisis peacefully while Israel kept refusing to apologise." However, when Israel asked to postpone the report for a further six months the request was passed on by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Turkey's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu at the Libya Summit in Paris on 1 September the request was rejected. "We gave Israel a further week to make its mind up," said Erdogan. "However, the US media leaked the report so Turkey had to act," he added. "That's when we downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Israeli ambassador, his deputy and all staff above the rank of Second Secretary." Other measures included the suspension of military agreements with Israel, mobilising the navy to escort Turkish ships in the eastern Mediterranean and supporting legal cases brought by the Flotilla victims' families against Israel in the international courts. Did the Israeli military attaché refuse to leave Ankara, I ask. "Yes, but he will be forced to go by diplomatic means, as his rank is above that of the new acceptable level." When I suggested that having the Turkish navy in eastern Mediterranean harbours raised the stakes and prospects of war to the extent that Turkey's actions caused the Tel Aviv Stock market to crash, the Prime Minister explained the situation in greater detail. (4) "Israel attacked the Mavi Marmara in international waters with total disregard for international laws and conventions. It treated the Mediterranean as an Israeli lake. We had an obligation, as did the international community, to bring Israel back to its senses. All we said is that our warships will escort Turkish ships in international waters, this is our legitimate right and no one should object to it, but this has angered Israel, which sought to defend its appropriation of international waters in the Middle East." But couldn't the presence of Turkish ships result in friction with the Israeli navy; couldn't the Israelis try to provoke Turkey into a military confrontation? "This is a possibility, but a remote possibility which is not supported by regional and international conditions; nonetheless, the Turkish navy is ready to deal with all possibilities including the worst case scenarios." Although Turkey has frozen military agreements with Israel, said Erdogan, "we made no reference to trade relations, which total around$2.5 billion annually". As far as Turkey is concerned, he added, economic relations are supposed to continue as they are even though the recent events have cast a shadow over them. "In addition, we did not take any measure with regard to economic ties with Israel, but it did not deal honestly with us, nor did it commit itself to normal trade ethics." What does he mean by that? "Turkey bought 6 Israeli drones and paid for them in full when the military agreements between the two countries were in force. These drones needed to be serviced so they were sent to Israel for that purpose. After they were serviced, Israel refused to return them. We did not expect such behaviour as it goes against business ethics accepted in normal trade relations." (5) We understand Turkey's plan A and plan B, but what about plan C? The Prime Minister thought for a few seconds, and then said that we should not anticipate events. "Plan C depends on Israel's reaction and readiness to accept a fair solution which preserves Turkey's rights and dignity." What he could say, was that Turkey is committed to four things: "It is our duty to preserve the rights and dignity of the Turkish people, who gave us [the government] their confidence, and to come to the defence of the martyrs' blood that was shed by Israel; we shall do this by standing up to Israeli indifference and arrogance – the Israelis are used to trampling upon international laws and conventions. We insist on achieving our demands through political, diplomatic and legal means. Finally, we are firm on the need to lift the blockade of Gaza as it is a flagrant violation of international law." Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has talked about the desire of his country to mend and improve relations with Turkey, I said, and to my knowledge there are many intermediaries working to mend relations between the two countries. Erdogan interjected: "That's true, but Israel has to apologise first and comply with the conditions we have announced. No one should imagine that Turkey will forfeit the dignity and blood of our people. This is what we have told all intermediaries, for whom we have much respect, I might add." However, he said, when Israel's leaders fail to read the political situation surrounding them, they lose their supporters and friends, even in the United States. "When former ministers and an intelligence chief say that Netanyahu is a danger to Israel and that he is pushing his country towards further international isolation, this is a significant sign that shows the extent of the negativity caused by Israeli policies and practices which reflect utter contempt for international law and accepted behavioural norms in a civilised world. Turkey cannot keep silent about such behaviour, especially following the killing of our citizens. There has to be a limit to Israel's arrogance." Fahmy Huwaidi is an Egyptian write From rebuild@twintowersalliance.com Sat Dec 16 14:28:27 2006 Received: from vms115pub.verizon.net (vms115pub.verizon.net [206.46.252.115]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id kBGJSKqP017590 for ; Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:28:26 -0500 Received: from OFFICE ([162.83.146.114]) by vms115.mailsrvcs.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-6.01 (built Apr 3 2006)) with ESMTPA id <0JAD00FMWSOS1M7P@vms115.mailsrvcs.net> for ruben@nylxs.com; Sat, 16 Dec 2006 13:28:25 -0600 (CST) Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:27:27 -0500 From: "The Twin Towers Alliance" Subject: Rare Opportunity to Be Heard To: "The Twin Towers Alliance" Message-id: <02d101c72148$6f0eeec0$2e01a8c0@OFFICE> MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3028 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_02D2_01C7211E.8638E6C0" Thread-index: AcchSDQmVR06xl+oR5uCLJI2yVQdjw== Status: RO Content-Length: 13308 Lines: 306 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_02D2_01C7211E.8638E6C0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Twin Towers Supporters: George Pataki has been doing his rotten best to force Governor-elect Spitzer into a corner regarding the WTC. On this Sunday 12/17 from 12-3 PM the public is invited to come to 200 North End Avenue, Battery Park City, to sign three of the steel beams they have ordered for the "Freedom Tower". THERE IS SURE TO BE MAJOR NEWS COVERAGE. We got an encouraging "sign" of sorts on Friday. The NY Post printed six pro-Twin Towers letters! Five of them were written by TTA supporters. The Post is read by tens of thousands of people and many were bound to wonder why the paper would bother if there is nothing in play. Good question. Please stand with us to the best of your ability. When people try to defeat the will of the people,* feel entitled to manipulate our system, and pay lip-service to freedom then they are rogues and must be challenged. We have got to be very aware that most of the people there will be emotionally invested in the FT and WE DO NOT WANT TO APPEAR STRIDENT. But we want to be CLEAR. Our case stands on its own. We will have a leaflet with bullets on "Why the Freedom Tower is Wrong for New York and the Country." We respect the people who will be there. Most of them haven't been won over by Pataki, they have been fooled by him. If you can't be there, ask yourself if you know anyone who could be, and if you do, please spend some time on the phone encouraging them to attend. If they tell you it's a lost cause point out that they have no way of knowing what could come of a successful showing on Sunday. It's going to be a warm, beautiful day and anyone who ever wanted to see the Towers rebuilt can afford to spend a couple of hours showing support -- not just for the benefit of the cameras, but also for Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, who is still looking into our request to halt the construction. We spoke with his office just over a week ago and were told that it is being studied. OUR PROSPECTS ARE A LOT BETTER THAN THEY SEEM AND WE ASK EVERYONE TO CLIMB INTO THE ARENA OF ACTION FOR THIS ONE DAY -- PARTICULARLY THOSE OF YOU WHO ATTENDED THE SEPTEMBER 10TH RALLY. If you can make up a simple sign on your computer, it can be printed inexpensively in Black & White on Kinko's wide format printers -- if not, please come anyway and help pass out leaflets. We recommend two 2' x 3' signs with a clear message that you can tape or staple onto both sides of a stiff piece of cardboard and hold high. At 75 cents per square foot that would cost $4.50 per side. The important thing is to get to Kinko's with your file as soon as you can, because they have so much going on at this time of year. A few ideas for signs are: -- Attorney General Spitzer: Say NO to the Fraud 'Em Tower -- It's Not Too Late to Do the Right Thing -- WHY Aren't We Rebuilding the Towers? -- New Yorkers DO NOT CARE About "The Street Grid" -- Pataki Is No Friend of Freedom -- WTC = TWIN TOWERS If you can make it, PLEASE come dressed for the cameras -- you never know when you may be the one face that gets stamped on this movement. The Towers deserve our best. It is hard to say where we will be allowed to gather but we should be visible by our signs. It would be great to know who is thinking of coming. Please consider sending a quick email to sunday@twintowersalliance.com. See http://www.twintowersalliance.com/nextsteps.html for more a map of the location. There is a lot happening which we will save for another email after the holidays. Thank you for all your support. Season's Greetings! All of us at The Twin Towers Alliance BACK WHERE THEY BELONG! www.twintowersalliance.com Because five years of the wrong plan for the wrong reasons is long enough! ------=_NextPart_000_02D2_01C7211E.8638E6C0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Dear Twin=20 Towers Supporters:
 
George=20 Pataki has been doing his rotten best to force Governor-elect Spitzer = into a=20 corner regarding the WTC. On this Sunday 12/17 from 12-3 PM the public = is=20 invited to come to 200 North End Avenue, Battery Park City, to sign = three of the=20 steel beams they have ordered for the "Freedom Tower". THERE IS SURE TO = BE MAJOR=20 NEWS COVERAGE.
 
We got an=20 encouraging "sign" of sorts on Friday. The NY Post printed six pro-Twin = Towers=20 letters! Five of them were written by TTA supporters. The Post is = read by=20 tens of thousands of people and many were bound to wonder why the paper = would=20 bother if there is nothing in play. Good question.
 
Please stand with us to the best of your ability. When = people try=20 to defeat the will of the people,* feel entitled to manipulate our = system, and=20 pay lip-service to freedom then they are rogues and must be=20 challenged.

We have got to be very = aware that=20 most of the people there will be emotionally invested in the FT and WE = DO NOT=20 WANT TO APPEAR STRIDENT. But we want to be CLEAR. Our case stands on its = own. We will have a leaflet with = bullets on "Why=20 the Freedom Tower is Wrong for New York and the Country." We respect the = people=20 who will be there. Most of them haven't been won over by Pataki, they = have been=20 fooled by him.

If you=20 can't be there, ask yourself if you know anyone who could be, and if you = do,=20 please spend some time on the phone encouraging them to attend. If they = tell you=20 it's a lost cause point out that they have no way of knowing what could = come of=20 a successful showing on Sunday. It's going to be a warm, beautiful day = and=20 anyone who ever wanted to see the Towers rebuilt can afford to spend a = couple of=20 hours showing support -- not just for the benefit of the cameras, = but also=20 for Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, who is still looking into our request = to halt=20 the construction. We spoke with his office just over a week ago and were = told=20 that it is being studied.
 
OUR PROSPECTS ARE A LOT BETTER THAN THEY SEEM AND WE=20 ASK EVERYONE TO CLIMB INTO THE ARENA OF ACTION FOR THIS ONE DAY --=20 PARTICULARLY THOSE OF YOU WHO ATTENDED THE SEPTEMBER 10TH RALLY. = If you=20 can make up a simple sign on your computer, it can be = printed=20 inexpensively in Black & White on Kinko's wide format printers -- if = not,=20 please come anyway and help pass out leaflets. We recommend two 2' x 3' = signs=20 with a clear message that you can tape or staple onto both sides of a = stiff=20 piece of cardboard and hold high. At 75 cents per square foot that would = cost=20 $4.50 per side.  The important thing is to get to Kinko's with your = file as=20 soon as you can, because they have so much going on at this time of = year. A few=20 ideas for signs are:
 
--=20 Attorney General Spitzer: Say NO to the Fraud 'Em = Tower
-- It's=20 Not Too Late to Do the Right Thing
-- WHY=20 Aren't We Rebuilding the Towers?
-- New=20 Yorkers DO NOT CARE About "The Street Grid"
-- Pataki=20 Is No Friend of Freedom
-- WTC =3D=20 TWIN TOWERS
 
If you can make it, PLEASE come dressed for the cameras = -- you=20 never know when you may be the one face that gets stamped on this = movement. The=20 Towers deserve our best.
 
It is=20 hard to say where we will be allowed to gather but we should = be visible by=20 our signs. It would be great to know who is thinking of coming. Please = consider=20 sending a quick email to sunday@twintowersal= liance.com.
 
See http://= www.twintowersalliance.com/nextsteps.html for=20 more a map of the location.
 
There is=20 a lot happening which we will save for another email after the=20 holidays.
 
Thank you=20 for all your support.
 
Season's=20 Greetings!
 
 
All of us at=20 The Twin Towers Alliance
 
BACK WHERE THEY BELONG!
www.twintowersallianc= e.com
 
Because five = years of the=20 wrong plan for the wrong reasons is long enough!
 
------=_NextPart_000_02D2_01C7211E.8638E6C0-- The Economist • Skip to main navigation • Skip to main content Search [Search ] Section search [Economist.com ] Go Welcome • My account • Manage my newsletters • Log out [a] [left_h4] [nav_head] • Home • This week's print edition • Daily news analysis • Opinion □ All opinion □ Leaders □ Letters to the Editor □ Blogs □ Columns □ KAL's cartoons □ Correspondent's diary □ Economist debates • World politics □ All world politics □ Politics this week □ United States □ The Americas □ Asia □ Middle East and Africa □ Europe □ Britain • Special reports • Business and finance □ All business and finance □ Business this week □ Economics focus □ Management □ Economics A-Z • Business education □ All business education □ Which MBA? • Markets and data □ All markets and data □ Daily chart □ Weekly indicators □ World markets □ Currencies □ Rankings □ Big Mac index • Science and technology □ All science and technology □ Technology Quarterly □ Technology Monitor • Books and arts □ All books and arts □ Style guide • People □ People □ Obituaries • Diversions • Audio and video □ Audio and video library □ Audio edition • The World In □ The World in 2010 □ The World in 2009 □ The World in 2008 □ The World in 2007 □ The World in 2006 □ The World in 2005 □ The World in 2004 • Research tools □ All research tools □ Articles by subject □ Economics A-Z □ Special reports □ Style guide • Country briefings □ All country briefings □ China □ India □ Brazil □ United States □ Russia • My account home • Newsletters and alerts □ Manage my newsletters □ Manage my e-mail alerts □ Manage my RSS feeds □ Manage special-offer alerts □ More » • Print subscriptions □ Subscribe to The Economist □ Renew my subscription □ Change my print subscription delivery, billing or e-mail address □ Pay my bill □ Activate premium online access □ Report a missing copy □ Suspend my subscription □ More » • Digital subscriptions □ Subscribe to Economist.com □ Manage my subscription □ Mobile edition □ Audio edition □ Download screensaver □ More » • Classifieds and jobs • The Economist Group □ About the Economist Group □ Economist Intelligence Unit □ Economist Conferences □ Intelligent Life □ CFO □ Roll Call □ European Voice □ EuroFinance □ Reprints and permissions • EIU online store • Economist shop Advertisement [a] [a] Briefing Women in the workforce Female power Dec 30th 2009 From The Economist print edition Across the rich world more women are working than ever before. Coping with this change will be one of the great challenges of the coming decades C Dunlop THE economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years. It is remarkable because of the extent of the change: millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their own economic fates. It is remarkable also because it has produced so little friction: a change that affects the most intimate aspects of people’s identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women. Dramatic social change seldom takes such a benign form. Yet even benign change can come with a sting in its tail. Social arrangements have not caught up with economic changes. Many children have paid a price for the rise of the two-income household. Many women—and indeed many men—feel that they are caught in an ever-tightening tangle of commitments. If the empowerment of women was one of the great changes of the past 50 years, dealing with its social consequences will be one of the great challenges of the next 50. At the end of her campaign to become America’s first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton remarked that her 18m votes in the Democratic Party’s primaries represented 18m cracks in the glass ceiling. In the market for jobs rather than votes the ceiling is being cracked every day. Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run some of the world’s best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe. Progress has not been uniform, of course. In Italy and Japan employment rates for men are more than 20 percentage points higher than those for women (see chart 1). Although Italy’s female employment rate has risen markedly in the past decade, it is still below 50%, and more than 20 percentage points below those of Denmark and Sweden (chart 2). Women earn substantially less than men on average and are severely under-represented at the top of organisations. The change is dramatic nevertheless. A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and were routinely subjected to casual sexism—as “Mad Men”, a television drama about advertising executives in the early 1960s, demonstrates brilliantly. Today women make up the majority of professional workers in many countries (51% in the United States, for example) and casual sexism is for losers. Even holdouts such as the Mediterranean countries are changing rapidly. In Spain the proportion of young women in the labour force has now reached American levels. The glass is much nearer to being half full than half empty. What explains this revolution? Politics have clearly played a part. Feminists such as Betty Friedan have demonised domestic slavery and lambasted discrimination. Governments have passed equal-rights acts. Female politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Mrs Clinton have taught younger women that anything is possible. But politics is only part of the answer: such discordant figures as Ms Friedan and Lady Thatcher have been borne aloft by subterranean economic and technological forces. [a] The rich world has seen a growing demand for women’s labour. When brute strength mattered more than brains, men had an inherent advantage. Now that brainpower has triumphed the two sexes are more evenly matched. The feminisation of the workforce has been driven by the relentless rise of the service sector (where women can compete as well as men) and the equally relentless decline of manufacturing (where they could not). The landmark book in the rise of feminism was arguably not Ms Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” but Daniel Bell’s “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society”. Demand has been matched by supply: women are increasingly willing and able to work outside the home. The vacuum cleaner has played its part. Improved technology reduced the amount of time needed for the traditional female work of cleaning and cooking. But the most important innovation has been the contraceptive pill. The spread of the pill has not only allowed women to get married later. It has also increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills, particularly slow-burning skills that are hard to learn and take many years to pay off. The knowledge that they would not have to drop out of, say, law school to have a baby made law school more attractive. The expansion of higher education has also boosted job prospects for women, improving their value on the job market and shifting their role models from stay-at-home mothers to successful professional women. The best-educated women have always been more likely than other women to work, even after having children. In 1963, 62% of college-educated women in the United States were in the labour force, compared with 46% of those with a high school diploma. Today 80% of American women with a college education are in the labour force compared with 67% of those with a high school diploma and 47% of those without one. This growing cohort of university-educated women is also educated in more marketable subjects. In 1966, 40% of American women who received a BA specialised in education in college; 2% specialised in business and management. The figures are now 12% and 50%. Women only continue to lag seriously behind men in a handful of subjects, such as engineering and computer sciences, where they earned about one-fifth of degrees in 2006. One of the most surprising things about this revolution is how little overt celebration it has engendered. Most people welcome the change. A recent Rockefeller Foundation/Time survey found that three-quarters of Americans regarded it as a positive development. Nine men out of ten said they were comfortable with women earning more than them. But few are cheering. This is partly because young women take their opportunities for granted. It is partly because for many women work represents economic necessity rather than liberation. The rich world’s growing army of single mothers have little choice but to work. A growing proportion of married women have also discovered that the only way they can preserve their households’ living standards is to join their husbands in the labour market. In America families with stay-at-home wives have the same inflation-adjusted income as similar families did in the early 1970s. But the biggest reason is that the revolution has brought plenty of problems in its wake. Production versus reproduction One obvious problem is that women’s rising aspirations have not been fulfilled. They have been encouraged to climb onto the occupational ladder only to discover that the middle rungs are dominated by men and the upper rungs are out of reach. Only 2% of the bosses of Fortune 500 companies and five of those in the FTSE 100 stockmarket index are women. Women make up less than 13% of board members in America. The upper ranks of management consultancies and banks are dominated by men. In America and Britain the typical full-time female worker earns only about 80% as much as the typical male. This no doubt owes something to prejudice. But the biggest reason why women remain frustrated is more profound: many women are forced to choose between motherhood and careers. Childless women in corporate America earn almost as much as men. Mothers with partners earn less and single mothers much less. The cost of motherhood is particularly steep for fast-track women. Traditionally “female” jobs such as teaching mix well with motherhood because wages do not rise much with experience and hours are relatively light. But at successful firms wages rise steeply and schedules are demanding. Future bosses are expected to have worked in several departments and countries. Professional-services firms have an up-or-out system which rewards the most dedicated with lucrative partnerships. The reason for the income gap may thus be the opposite of prejudice. It is that women are judged by exactly the same standards as men. This Hobson’s choice is imposing a high cost on both individuals and society. Many professional women reject motherhood entirely: in Switzerland 40% of them are childless. Others delay child-bearing for so long that they are forced into the arms of the booming fertility industry. The female drop-out rate from the most competitive professions represents a loss to collective investment in talent. A study of graduates of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business by Marianne Bertrand and her colleagues found that, ten years after graduating, about half of the female MBAs who had chosen to have children remained in the labour force. It also leaves many former high-flyers frustrated. Another American study, this time of women who left work to have children, found that all but 7% of them wanted to return to work. Only 74% managed to return, and just 40% returned to full-time jobs. Even well-off parents worry that they spend too little time with their children, thanks to crowded schedules and the ever-buzzing BlackBerry. For poorer parents, juggling the twin demands of work and child-rearing can be a nightmare. Child care eats a terrifying proportion of the family budget, and many childminders are untrained. But quitting work to look after the children can mean financial disaster. British children brought up in two-parent families where only one parent works are almost three times more likely to be poor than children with two parents at work. A survey for the Children’s Society, a British charity, found that 60% of parents agreed that “nowadays parents aren’t able to spend enough time with their children”. In a similar survey in America 74% of parents said that they did not have enough time for their children. Nor does the problem disappear as children get older. In most countries schools finish early in the afternoon. In America they close down for two months in the summer. Only a few places—Denmark, Sweden and, to a lesser extent, France and Quebec—provide comprehensive systems of after-school care. Different countries have adopted different solutions to the problem of combining work and parenthood. Some stress the importance of very young children spending time with their mothers. Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland and Hungary provide up to three years of paid leave for mothers. Germany has introduced a “parent’s salary”, or Elterngeld, to encourage mothers to stay at home. (The legislation was championed by a minister for women who has seven children.) Other countries put more emphasis on preschool education. New Zealand and the Nordic countries are particularly keen on getting women back to work and children into kindergartens. Britain, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and, above all, the Netherlands are keen on mothers working part-time. Others, such as the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Portugal and South Korea, make little room for part-time work for women. The Scandinavian countries, particularly Iceland, have added a further wrinkle by increasing incentives for fathers to spend more time caring for their children. The world’s biggest economy has adopted an idiosyncratic approach. America provides no statutory paid leave for mothers and only 12 weeks unpaid. At least 145 countries provide paid sick leave. America allows only unpaid absence for serious family illness. America’s public spending on family support is low by OECD standards (see chart 3). It spends only 0.5% of its GDP on public support for child care compared with 1.3% in France and 2.7% in Denmark. It is difficult to evaluate the relative merits of these various arrangements. Different systems can produce similar results: anti-statist America has roughly the same proportion of children in kindergartens as statist Finland. Different systems have different faults. Sweden is not quite the paragon that its fans imagine, despite its family-friendly employment policies. Only 1.5% of senior managers are women, compared with 11% in America. Three-quarters of Swedish women work in the public sector; three-quarters of men work in the private sector. But there is evidence that America and Britain, the countries that combine high female employment with reluctance to involve the state in child care, serve their children especially poorly. A report by Unicef in 2007 on children in rich countries found that America and Britain had some of the lowest scores for “well-being”. A woman’s world The trend towards more women working is almost certain to continue. In the European Union women have filled 6m of the 8m new jobs created since 2000. In America three out of four people thrown out of work since the recession began are men; the female unemployment rate is 8.6%, against 11.2% for men. The Bureau of Labour Statistics calculates that women make up more than two-thirds of employees in ten of the 15 job categories likely to grow fastest in the next few years. By 2011 there will be 2.6m more women than men studying in American universities. Women will also be the beneficiaries of the growing “war for talent”. The combination of an ageing workforce and a more skill-dependent economy means that countries will have to make better use of their female populations. Goldman Sachs calculates that, leaving all other things equal, increasing women’s participation in the labour market to male levels will boost GDP by 21% in Italy, 19% in Spain, 16% in Japan, 9% in America, France and Germany, and 8% in Britain. Rex Features The next generation The corporate world is doing ever more to address the loss of female talent and the difficulty of combining work with child care. Many elite companies are rethinking their promotion practices. Addleshaw Goddard, a law firm, has created the role of legal director as an alternative to partnerships for women who want to combine work and motherhood. Ernst & Young and other accounting firms have increased their efforts to maintain connections with women who take time off to have children and then ease them back into work. Home-working is increasingly fashionable. More than 90% of companies in Germany and Sweden allow flexible working. A growing number of firms are learning to divide the working week in new ways—judging staff on annual rather than weekly hours, allowing them to work nine days a fortnight, letting them come in early or late and allowing husbands and wives to share jobs. Almost half of Sun Microsystems’s employees work at home or from nearby satellite offices. Raytheon, a maker of missile systems, allows workers every other Friday off to take care of family business, if they make up the hours on other days. Companies are even rethinking the structure of careers, as people live and work longer. Barclays is one of many firms that allow five years’ unpaid leave. John Lewis offers a six-month paid sabbatical to people who have been in the company for 25 years. Companies are allowing people to phase their retirement. Child-bearing years will thus make up a smaller proportion of women’s potential working lives. Spells out of the labour force will become less a mark of female exceptionalism. Faster change is likely as women exploit their economic power. Many talented women are already hopping off the corporate treadmill to form companies that better meet their needs. In the past decade the number of privately owned companies started by women in America has increased twice as fast as the number owned by men. Women-owned companies employ more people than the largest 500 companies combined. Eden McCallum and Axiom Legal have applied a network model to their respective fields of management consultancy and legal services: network members work when it suits them and the companies use their scale to make sure that clients have their problems dealt with immediately. Governments are also trying to adjust to the new world. Germany now has 1,600 schools where the day lasts until mid-afternoon. Some of the most popular American charter schools offer longer school days and shorter summer holidays. But so far even the combination of public- and private-sector initiatives has only gone so far to deal with the problem. The children of poorer working mothers are the least likely to benefit from female-friendly companies. Millions of families still struggle with insufficient child-care facilities and a school day that bears no relationship to their working lives. The West will be struggling to cope with the social consequences of women’s economic empowerment for many years to come. 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Coping with this change will be one of the great challenges of the coming decades C Dunlop THE economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years. It is remarkable because of the extent of the change: millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their own economic fates. It is remarkable also because it has produced so little friction: a change that affects the most intimate aspects of people’s identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women. Dramatic social change seldom takes such a benign form. Yet even benign change can come with a sting in its tail. Social arrangements have not caught up with economic changes. Many children have paid a price for the rise of the two-income household. Many women—and indeed many men—feel that they are caught in an ever-tightening tangle of commitments. If the empowerment of women was one of the great changes of the past 50 years, dealing with its social consequences will be one of the great challenges of the next 50. At the end of her campaign to become America’s first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton remarked that her 18m votes in the Democratic Party’s primaries represented 18m cracks in the glass ceiling. In the market for jobs rather than votes the ceiling is being cracked every day. Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run some of the world’s best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe. Progress has not been uniform, of course. In Italy and Japan employment rates for men are more than 20 percentage points higher than those for women (see chart 1). Although Italy’s female employment rate has risen markedly in the past decade, it is still below 50%, and more than 20 percentage points below those of Denmark and Sweden (chart 2). Women earn substantially less than men on average and are severely under-represented at the top of organisations. The change is dramatic nevertheless. A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and were routinely subjected to casual sexism—as “Mad Men”, a television drama about advertising executives in the early 1960s, demonstrates brilliantly. Today women make up the majority of professional workers in many countries (51% in the United States, for example) and casual sexism is for losers. Even holdouts such as the Mediterranean countries are changing rapidly. In Spain the proportion of young women in the labour force has now reached American levels. The glass is much nearer to being half full than half empty. What explains this revolution? Politics have clearly played a part. Feminists such as Betty Friedan have demonised domestic slavery and lambasted discrimination. Governments have passed equal-rights acts. Female politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Mrs Clinton have taught younger women that anything is possible. But politics is only part of the answer: such discordant figures as Ms Friedan and Lady Thatcher have been borne aloft by subterranean economic and technological forces. The rich world has seen a growing demand for women’s labour. When brute strength mattered more than brains, men had an inherent advantage. Now that brainpower has triumphed the two sexes are more evenly matched. The feminisation of the workforce has been driven by the relentless rise of the service sector (where women can compete as well as men) and the equally relentless decline of manufacturing (where they could not). The landmark book in the rise of feminism was arguably not Ms Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” but Daniel Bell’s “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society”. Demand has been matched by supply: women are increasingly willing and able to work outside the home. The vacuum cleaner has played its part. Improved technology reduced the amount of time needed for the traditional female work of cleaning and cooking. But the most important innovation has been the contraceptive pill. The spread of the pill has not only allowed women to get married later. It has also increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills, particularly slow-burning skills that are hard to learn and take many years to pay off. The knowledge that they would not have to drop out of, say, law school to have a baby made law school more attractive. The expansion of higher education has also boosted job prospects for women, improving their value on the job market and shifting their role models from stay-at-home mothers to successful professional women. The best-educated women have always been more likely than other women to work, even after having children. In 1963, 62% of college-educated women in the United States were in the labour force, compared with 46% of those with a high school diploma. Today 80% of American women with a college education are in the labour force compared with 67% of those with a high school diploma and 47% of those without one. This growing cohort of university-educated women is also educated in more marketable subjects. In 1966, 40% of American women who received a BA specialised in education in college; 2% specialised in business and management. The figures are now 12% and 50%. Women only continue to lag seriously behind men in a handful of subjects, such as engineering and computer sciences, where they earned about one-fifth of degrees in 2006. One of the most surprising things about this revolution is how little overt celebration it has engendered. Most people welcome the change. A recent Rockefeller Foundation/Time survey found that three-quarters of Americans regarded it as a positive development. Nine men out of ten said they were comfortable with women earning more than them. But few are cheering. This is partly because young women take their opportunities for granted. It is partly because for many women work represents economic necessity rather than liberation. The rich world’s growing army of single mothers have little choice but to work. A growing proportion of married women have also discovered that the only way they can preserve their households’ living standards is to join their husbands in the labour market. In America families with stay-at-home wives have the same inflation-adjusted income as similar families did in the early 1970s. But the biggest reason is that the revolution has brought plenty of problems in its wake. Production versus reproduction One obvious problem is that women’s rising aspirations have not been fulfilled. They have been encouraged to climb onto the occupational ladder only to discover that the middle rungs are dominated by men and the upper rungs are out of reach. Only 2% of the bosses of Fortune 500 companies and five of those in the FTSE 100 stockmarket index are women. Women make up less than 13% of board members in America. The upper ranks of management consultancies and banks are dominated by men. In America and Britain the typical full-time female worker earns only about 80% as much as the typical male. This no doubt owes something to prejudice. But the biggest reason why women remain frustrated is more profound: many women are forced to choose between motherhood and careers. Childless women in corporate America earn almost as much as men. Mothers with partners earn less and single mothers much less. The cost of motherhood is particularly steep for fast-track women. Traditionally “female” jobs such as teaching mix well with motherhood because wages do not rise much with experience and hours are relatively light. But at successful firms wages rise steeply and schedules are demanding. Future bosses are expected to have worked in several departments and countries. Professional-services firms have an up-or-out system which rewards the most dedicated with lucrative partnerships. The reason for the income gap may thus be the opposite of prejudice. It is that women are judged by exactly the same standards as men. This Hobson’s choice is imposing a high cost on both individuals and society. Many professional women reject motherhood entirely: in Switzerland 40% of them are childless. Others delay child-bearing for so long that they are forced into the arms of the booming fertility industry. The female drop-out rate from the most competitive professions represents a loss to collective investment in talent. A study of graduates of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business by Marianne Bertrand and her colleagues found that, ten years after graduating, about half of the female MBAs who had chosen to have children remained in the labour force. It also leaves many former high-flyers frustrated. Another American study, this time of women who left work to have children, found that all but 7% of them wanted to return to work. Only 74% managed to return, and just 40% returned to full-time jobs. Even well-off parents worry that they spend too little time with their children, thanks to crowded schedules and the ever-buzzing BlackBerry. For poorer parents, juggling the twin demands of work and child-rearing can be a nightmare. Child care eats a terrifying proportion of the family budget, and many childminders are untrained. But quitting work to look after the children can mean financial disaster. British children brought up in two-parent families where only one parent works are almost three times more likely to be poor than children with two parents at work. A survey for the Children’s Society, a British charity, found that 60% of parents agreed that “nowadays parents aren’t able to spend enough time with their children”. In a similar survey in America 74% of parents said that they did not have enough time for their children. Nor does the problem disappear as children get older. In most countries schools finish early in the afternoon. In America they close down for two months in the summer. Only a few places—Denmark, Sweden and, to a lesser extent, France and Quebec—provide comprehensive systems of after-school care. Different countries have adopted different solutions to the problem of combining work and parenthood. Some stress the importance of very young children spending time with their mothers. Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland and Hungary provide up to three years of paid leave for mothers. Germany has introduced a “parent’s salary”, or Elterngeld, to encourage mothers to stay at home. (The legislation was championed by a minister for women who has seven children.) Other countries put more emphasis on preschool education. New Zealand and the Nordic countries are particularly keen on getting women back to work and children into kindergartens. Britain, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and, above all, the Netherlands are keen on mothers working part-time. Others, such as the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Portugal and South Korea, make little room for part-time work for women. The Scandinavian countries, particularly Iceland, have added a further wrinkle by increasing incentives for fathers to spend more time caring for their children. The world’s biggest economy has adopted an idiosyncratic approach. America provides no statutory paid leave for mothers and only 12 weeks unpaid. At least 145 countries provide paid sick leave. America allows only unpaid absence for serious family illness. America’s public spending on family support is low by OECD standards (see chart 3). It spends only 0.5% of its GDP on public support for child care compared with 1.3% in France and 2.7% in Denmark. It is difficult to evaluate the relative merits of these various arrangements. Different systems can produce similar results: anti-statist America has roughly the same proportion of children in kindergartens as statist Finland. Different systems have different faults. Sweden is not quite the paragon that its fans imagine, despite its family-friendly employment policies. Only 1.5% of senior managers are women, compared with 11% in America. Three-quarters of Swedish women work in the public sector; three-quarters of men work in the private sector. But there is evidence that America and Britain, the countries that combine high female employment with reluctance to involve the state in child care, serve their children especially poorly. A report by Unicef in 2007 on children in rich countries found that America and Britain had some of the lowest scores for “well-being”. A woman’s world The trend towards more women working is almost certain to continue. In the European Union women have filled 6m of the 8m new jobs created since 2000. In America three out of four people thrown out of work since the recession began are men; the female unemployment rate is 8.6%, against 11.2% for men. The Bureau of Labour Statistics calculates that women make up more than two-thirds of employees in ten of the 15 job categories likely to grow fastest in the next few years. By 2011 there will be 2.6m more women than men studying in American universities. Women will also be the beneficiaries of the growing “war for talent”. The combination of an ageing workforce and a more skill-dependent economy means that countries will have to make better use of their female populations. Goldman Sachs calculates that, leaving all other things equal, increasing women’s participation in the labour market to male levels will boost GDP by 21% in Italy, 19% in Spain, 16% in Japan, 9% in America, France and Germany, and 8% in Britain. Rex Features The next generation The corporate world is doing ever more to address the loss of female talent and the difficulty of combining work with child care. Many elite companies are rethinking their promotion practices. Addleshaw Goddard, a law firm, has created the role of legal director as an alternative to partnerships for women who want to combine work and motherhood. Ernst & Young and other accounting firms have increased their efforts to maintain connections with women who take time off to have children and then ease them back into work. Home-working is increasingly fashionable. More than 90% of companies in Germany and Sweden allow flexible working. A growing number of firms are learning to divide the working week in new ways—judging staff on annual rather than weekly hours, allowing them to work nine days a fortnight, letting them come in early or late and allowing husbands and wives to share jobs. Almost half of Sun Microsystems’s employees work at home or from nearby satellite offices. Raytheon, a maker of missile systems, allows workers every other Friday off to take care of family business, if they make up the hours on other days. Companies are even rethinking the structure of careers, as people live and work longer. Barclays is one of many firms that allow five years’ unpaid leave. John Lewis offers a six-month paid sabbatical to people who have been in the company for 25 years. Companies are allowing people to phase their retirement. Child-bearing years will thus make up a smaller proportion of women’s potential working lives. Spells out of the labour force will become less a mark of female exceptionalism. Faster change is likely as women exploit their economic power. Many talented women are already hopping off the corporate treadmill to form companies that better meet their needs. In the past decade the number of privately owned companies started by women in America has increased twice as fast as the number owned by men. Women-owned companies employ more people than the largest 500 companies combined. Eden McCallum and Axiom Legal have applied a network model to their respective fields of management consultancy and legal services: network members work when it suits them and the companies use their scale to make sure that clients have their problems dealt with immediately. Governments are also trying to adjust to the new world. Germany now has 1,600 schools where the day lasts until mid-afternoon. Some of the most popular American charter schools offer longer school days and shorter summer holidays. But so far even the combination of public- and private-sector initiatives has only gone so far to deal with the problem. The children of poorer working mothers are the least likely to benefit from female-friendly companies. Millions of families still struggle with insufficient child-care facilities and a school day that bears no relationship to their working lives. The West will be struggling to cope with the social consequences of women’s economic empowerment for many years to come. April 4, 2007 Very Young Populations Contribute to Strife, Study Concludes By CELIA W. DUGGER Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Congo have all suffered horrors brought on by disastrous governance and violent conflict. But they, and many of Africa’s poorest countries, have something else in common: very young populations. While it is not clear exactly how the age of a population contributes to strife, research by Population Action International suggests that it is no simple coincidence that 80 percent of the civil conflicts that broke out in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s occurred in countries where at least 60 percent of the population was under 30, and that almost 9 of 10 such youthful countries had autocratic rulers or weak democracies. In poor countries with rapidly growing populations, intense competition for education, jobs and land among the young contributes to discontent and makes it easier for rebel groups to recruit, said Elizabeth Leahy, the primary author of a new report for Population Action, a nonprofit group in Washington. William L. Nash, a retired Army major general who now directs Center for Preventive Action of the Council on Foreign Relations, said: “You’ve got a lot of young men. You’ve got a lot of poverty. You’ve got a lot of bad governance, and often you’ve got greed with extractive industries. You put all that together, and you’ve got the makings of trouble.” One strategy is to reduce the birthrates and the mortality rates of infants and younger children, according to Population Action, which hopes its research will improve contraception programs, education for girls and health services for children and pregnant women. “The budget realities are such that unless you can show how your programs help achieve larger ends — security, development, poverty reduction, democracy — traditional rationales for humanitarian assistance aren’t enough,” said Tod J. Preston, a senior adviser at the group. In a December 2005 report titled “More Than Humanitarianism,” a Council on Foreign Relations task force with bipartisan leadership called population a neglected area of American policy, one that could help lower the odds of conflict. Population Action’s report, “The Shape of Things to Come,” features Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 132 million people and a major supplier of oil to the United States, as an example of the strategic risks posed by youthful, volatile nations plagued by corruption, instability and poverty. Rebels there, enraged by the distribution of oil revenues, have attacked the industry, which is important to rich nations. In Nigeria, almost three quarters of the population is under 30. Birthrates are very high, at more than five children per woman. Less than half the women have attended school and fewer than one in 10 use modern contraception. A fifth of children die before they turn 5 — a factor specialists say encourages couples to have more children to ensure that some survive. Almost a billion people live in countries where birthrates average at least four children per woman, among them, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan. Those countries need help to improve infant and child survival and the educational status of women, to reduce population pressures and to become more stable, the report says. If nothing changes, the authors say, the populations of such countries will double in 35 years. Advocates at Population Action are critical of deep cuts in international family planning programs in the Bush administration’s 2008 budget proposal, but a Democratic-controlled Congress is likely to reverse them, as the Republican-controlled Congress did last year. The advocates acknowledged that the administration’s efforts to increase financing of programs to combat AIDS and malaria are likely to help prevent the deaths of many children — another goal. The group’s researchers found that some countries that have aggressively pursued family planning programs have significantly changed their age structures in a relatively brief span of 25 years. The report cites Iran as an example. Since the 1990s, Iran has made modern contraceptives available free at public clinics. Births are down to two children per woman, from six and a half at the time of the 1979 revolution. Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, who is a member of the Population Action board and was in charge of Army intelligence when she retired in 2000, said the United States needed to focus more on efforts to improve the status of women and ease population pressures in developing countries. “When people think reproductive issues are girlie because it involves a woman’s biology, they ignore the social, political and economic impact of not paying attention to these matters,” she said. “And it reflects a pervasive attitude that if it’s about women, it’s unimportant, but if it’s about what huge weapons system to buy, that’s more manly and more important.” Home * World * U.S. * N.Y. / Region * Business * Technology * Science * Health * Sports * Opinion * Arts * Style * Travel * Jobs * Real Estate * Automobiles * Back to Top Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company * Privacy Policy * Search * Corrections * RSS * First Look * Help * Contact Us * Work for Us * Site Map Trying to Keep Young Internet Users From a Life of Piracy By JOHN SCHWARTZ Then law enforcement agents seized 129 computers in 27 cities recently in a coordinated assault on online piracy, they focused much of their effort on colleges like Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Los Angeles. They were probably too late. As children have access to computers earlier and earlier in their educational careers, experts in piracy, hacking and other forms of Internet mischief say that any effort to tackle the illicit trade in digital goods - including video games, computer software, music and even movies - should be looking at a younger crowd. "By the time we get them, they already believe it's right," said David J. Farber, a professor of computer science at the University of Pennsylvania and the former chief technologist of the Federal Communications Commission "If you're willing to bootleg music, you're willing to bootleg anything." In fact, America's rush to the online world has created an enormous population of ever-younger computer pirates, say experts in the field. They compare the situation with giving every student a car without providing drivers' education classes. "We've got to focus on preparing kids to use the Internet in a safe and responsible manner," said Nancy E. Willard, director of the Responsible Netizen Center for Advanced Technology in Education at the University of Oregon. She has prepared course materials and guides for teaching computer ethics in secondary schools to help them meet the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000. The law, which requires schools and libraries to use filters or similar technology to protect children from objectionable materials, also requires an "Internet safety policy" to prevent "unauthorized access, including so-called `hacking,' and other unlawful activities by minors online." Online, the searching and trading for wares goes on day and night. In an online discussion last week using technology known as Internet Relay Chat, the "warez" channel, or chat room, was busy. Warez is slang for software that has been "liberated" from encryption. On the channel, rapid-fire bursts of messages requesting digital goods - games, DVD's, business software - were interspersed among the random comments and insults: Queball: "Anyone know where I can a copy Sybex virtual lab . . ." Porrin: "@find 3d studio para *pc*." Nellie: "Anyone here have save the last dance movie. msg me." The patter and trading are constant, yet this is small time. Far bigger players operate quietly with vast storage and bandwidth, cracking the copyright protection that keep the strings of ones and zeroes that underlie everything from the video game Tomb Raider to the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and making them available in a limitless five-finger discount store in the ether. The recent raids focused mainly on the networks of hard-core traders in a handful of groups with names like DrinkOrDie, which tended to trade for fun and not for profit. Among the computers seized were ones belonging to business executives and administrators of computer networks. Unauthorized copying and distribution of software is a global headache for the industry, which claims that more than a third of all business software used is pirated, according to an annual report commissioned by the Business Software Alliance, a trade group. In fact, the situation has improved markedly since 1995, when the figure was closer to half of all software. In the United States the figure has dropped to 24 percent, the lowest rate in the world, because of a vigorous education and enforcement efforts and until recently a strong economy. Over all, the cost of business software piracy alone was $11.75 billion in 2000, the group reported, although this amount assumes that any illicitly used software would otherwise have been bought by users. The greatest incidence of software piracy, according to industry experts, occurs in business, where many employees of a firm will share a single copy of a program. Internet trading pales by comparison, said Bob Kruger, vice president for enforcement at the Business Software Alliance. But it constitutes "the biggest threat in the future," he said, "as people become more accustomed to getting digital works online." The software industry does not break out the statistics for piracy in higher education, but "anecdotally, we see a lot of activity coming out of university areas," said Ric Hirsch, senior vice president for intellectual property enforcement at the Interactive Digital Software Association, the trade association representing computer and video game publishers. Eugene H. Spafford, a professor of computer science and director of Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, said if students lack the ethical preparation when they begin using the Internet, things quickly spiral out of control when they reach college, where they have lots of free time, peers they want to impress and high bandwidth. That is to be expected, Professor Spafford said, since college is a time for testing boundaries. "We do encourage them to try new things, meet new people," he said. "It's not that surprising that they try to break some of the bounds, and not just in computing." But fixing the problem would be expensive and intrusive, he said. He questions whether the monitoring required might be worse than the disease. "When you have one person who goes bad out of 40,000, do you want to watch that other 39,999 to catch that one?" Professor Spafford asked. "To find the people doing the bad things might involve violating the privacy of all those other people. As a society is that the kind of trade-off we want to make?" Professor Farber agreed. Closely monitor students, he warned, and "pretty soon you'll be looking at what they write and what they read." Some experts say they wish the corporations pushing for ethical behavior among customers would show more of it themselves. Many students bristle at the newest legal tool for protecting copyright, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It has been criticized as heavy handed, tipping the balance of copyright law away from principles such as fair use. Many also note, Professor Willard said, a federal court ruling that Microsoft (news/quote) had abused its monopoly power. That is how "Incursion" sees it. The Internet name belonged to a college student from Texas, who was looking for games recently on the Warez channel. The student said he generally pays for the software he uses but does like to sample the goods before buying. "If I feel it's a quality game," he said, "I'll buy it." Asked whether using software without paying for it is wrong, he replied, "depends what you consider wrong." Pressed for further explanation, he wrote, "A monopoly is wrong." Taking apart rationalizations like that one are part of what Professor Willard tries to do in materials that she has prepared for teenagers. But she added that the argument has power - and that recklessness and rebellion are not just part of adolescence but of the American character. "We applaud the U.S. patriots," she said, "who hacked onto the British tea ship and destroyed their product." Ultimately, time might be on the companies' side. The environment changes so quickly that even would- be pirates say they find it hard to keep up. Jeremy, who goes by the online name "Xelsed" and asks that only his first name be used, insisted that he did not trade software any more - which did not explain what he was doing in the Warez channel typing "!gimme stuff," a request he saw others type and which he figured could lead to offers. Even if he wanted to, though, he was out of touch, he said, having not visited the site in several months. The old formula for a request for software - typing "/xdcc" and then the name of a program - did not seem to resonate in the current slang. "Now I really dont know what to do," he types in the hasty, error- riddled style of instant messages. "I have to face the fact that well i'm dated." Jeremy said he was 27 and out of college and added that he feels he has outgrown the warez world. "To be frank," he wrote, "I think its probably alot easer to buy the game then to spend the hours neccacery to make `friends' and get into the sceen."